End Of Alice – by A. M. Homes

I read The End of Alice by A.M. Homes a few years ago, always remembered it, and I reread it recently. I think it’s grown on me since then, and it’s still just as interesting as it was the first time.

Part fantasy, part confession, the book is told from the point of view of a middle-aged man, known only as “Chappy,” who’s been at Sing Sing for the past twenty-three years for the murder of a girl named Alice. Corresponding with a 19-year-old girl who he believes relates very closely to him, he loses himself in his imaginings and begins to be obsessed with her. He constantly weaves between his fantasies, memories, and the reality of his life in prison; in nonlinear flashbacks, we learn about his Lolita-esque relationship with a twelve-year-old offbeat wild child, Alice, who collects butterflies and writes poems by Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson on the bottoms of her sneakers in marker. She is a precociously intelligent and yet childlike girl, a mix of knowing seduction, fierceness, and vulnerability. The sad thing is that Chappy still really loves Alice after all these years; his almost visceral love of the girl is apparent; and as he claims, he never intended to harm her. As she hurtles inevitably towards adolescence, he seems in some way to have wanted to save her from the tragedy of growing up into a woman. It is only at the end, during his parole hearing, that we hear the full truth of what happened to Alice, a perverse horror story that could have graced the front page of any paper in the ’90s. Then he is released from prison, and implies that he is heading out into the world for us.

This novel stands out because of its razor-sharp wit and unique style. The protagonist is highly articulate and insightful, with piercing commentary that’s humorous and perverse, all at once. Though he’s the “bad guy,” it’s impossible not to relate to him, which he as much as tells us. He often directly addresses the reader, sort of forcing us into the position of a voyeur and involving us in his crime. His frank treatment of pedophilia, incest, and sexual abuse might be offensive to some people. The scenarios he comes up with in his fevered brain, the “words of the girl” that he invents/supposedly “reinterprets” for us, sometimes border on erotica and bad taste; but they are his fantasies. His scathing satire of suburbia, and his bizarre revelation of its true dysfunction, decay, damage, and heartbreak, is piercing and insanely sharp. It’s not meant to be totally realistic, but anyone can recognize the truth in it.

Beautifully written, this book maybe isn’t for everyone. However, I think its wit, style, and poignancy make it one of those rare books written in the past twenty years that have really stuck out to me.

Intriguing, dark, and witty – might make you feel morally queasy.

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; First Edition edition (February 18, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684827107
• Amazon Link