About Alice

About Alice - Calvin Trillin

Of course, there are plenty of nice books.
But let’s admit it. There are very few books that move us.
And fewer still that move us to tears at the end of it..!!

The book About Alice is one such charmer that will make you feed really nice once you read it. About Alice by Calvin Trillin is a joy to read.About Alice is a petite book (just 78 pages perhaps thats why I grabbed it from Library instantly :)).

In Calvin Trillin's (the write) antic tales of family life, Alice was portrayed as the wife who had 'a predilection for limiting hre family to 3 meals a day' & the mother who thought that if you must go to every performance of your child's school play.

Five, years after her death, her husband - Calvin offers a loving portrai of her.Calvin has been an ace journalist at 'The New Yorker' since 1963; besides he's a great humorist & novelist.He went on to Yale University (my friend at yale mentioned abt him as a remarkable Yale Alumni indeed).Much of his nonfiction includes references to his life and family. Though 'About Alice' deals with the devastating loss, he faced post Alice's death in 2001 (They got marriedr in 1965), the book is also a love story, chronicling a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin treid his best to impress a younng woman who "seemed to glow" !! The rest as they say was history !

Calvin says he always wrote everything for Alice. The book is a loving tribute to his late wife Alice who died of cardiac arrest in 2001. Let me put down portions from the book itself that illustrates the how much Calvin loved Alice and what a nice woman she was:

Calvin on readers of his articles in The New Yorker...

"They may not have known her, but they knew how I felt about her. A young woman once wrote that she sometimes looked at her boyfriend and thought "But, will he love me like Calvin loves Alice?"

Calvin...

"My first impression was that she looked more alive than anyone I'd ever seen !! She was nice & when she talked to you, she was thinking about you & yes she was charming and adorned that
innocent look on face ! She was direct. There were things she didn't like, & she was never shy about saying so. She didn't like clubs, or just about any institution that excluded any-body."

Post Cancer....

"It occurs to me that Alice responded to having Cancer like an everyday problem. He says that she said that the worst thing Cancer can do is rob you of your identity which in her case was engagement , optimism & enthusiasm. The most negative word she ever used was 'passive'."

Sarah (their daughter) on Alice's Memorial...

Mom, I know you're listening somewhere, waiting patiently to hear me say these words: You were the coolest girl I ever knew."

I was way too impressed with Calvin's writing & this book in particular - awaiting your feedback as well :) By the way for more curious amongst you - here are couple of Audio Interviews of this great writer -- http://wiredforbooks.org/calvintrillin/.

Aim above the mark to hit the mark.