Play Audiobook Sample
About Alice Audiobook
Play Audiobook Sample
(4.07) - 30 listener ratings
Quick Stats About this Audiobook
Total Audiobook Chapters:
Longest Chapter Length:
Shortest Chapter Length:
Average Chapter Length:
Audiobooks by this Author:
Publisher Description
In Calvin Trillin’s antic tales of family life, she was portrayed as the wife who had “a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day” and the mother who thought that if you didn’t go to every performance of your child’s school play, “the county would come and take the child.” Now, five years after her death, her husband offers this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page–an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a stunningly beautiful and thoroughly engaged woman who, in the words of a friend, “managed to navigate the tricky waters between living a life you could be proud of and still delighting in the many things there are to take pleasure in.” Though it deals with devastating loss, About Alice is also a love story, chronicling a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin Trillin desperately tried to impress a young woman who “seemed to glow.” “You have never again been as funny as you were that night,” Alice would say, twenty or thirty years later. “You mean I peaked in December of 1963?” “I’m afraid so.” But he never quit trying to impress her. In his writing, she was sometimes his subject and always his muse. The dedication of the first book he published after her death read, “I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice.” In that spirit, Calvin Trillin has, with About Alice, created a gift to the wife he adored and to his readers.
Download and start listening now!
"Beautiful and inspriring are overused words but in this case,so apt. Trillin writes of his beloved wife Alice who died just after their second daughter's wedding.She was someone I wish I had met and it is to his credit that I felt such loss while reading the book. "
— Laura (5 out of 5 stars)
About Alice Listener Reviews
-
" This is a novel that reads like a memoir of suffering with early onset Alzheimers. Scary and heartbreaking. "
— Tracy, 6/13/2011 -
" If you were a regular reader of Calvin Trillen, this would have been a fantastic book and a great tribute to his late wife, Alice. It was still a nice tribute, but to someone I didn't know. I can't even remember how it got on my book list. "
— Kristina, 6/9/2011 -
" I was warned that this one was a little too sweet- but I really liked it. "
— Stephanie, 5/26/2011 -
" Short but good. Made me want to read more Trilin "
— Liz, 5/21/2011 -
" Excellent tribute to a loved wife and a journey through their life together after heer death from cancer. "
— Beverly, 4/16/2011 -
" What a great short read. It made me want to be friends with Alice "
— Lauren, 4/12/2011 -
" Now that I have read the year of Magical Thinking, I begin to understand more why the piece lacks chronological order.<br/><br/>He did a great job making her seem lovable, but still not perfect. "
— Ke, 4/8/2011 -
" I had goose bumps after I finished this tribute to the author's wife. The amount of love, admiration, and respect he held for her was touching. Not only did he adore her, he noticed all the "little" things. "
— Gordonclan5, 3/24/2011 -
" I read this loving tribute to a wife in two hours. Warm story about a woman who wants to protect her husband and daughters and knows she is going to die -- all written from the husband's perspective. I loved it. "
— Diana, 3/24/2011 -
" Charming love story chronicling a romance that began in 1963. "
— Jill, 3/23/2011 -
" Excellent memoir about his wife. Wonderfully written and fast to get through. Real love stories are so much fun. "
— Mary, 3/18/2011 -
" Short, poignant memory of Alice, the love of Trillin's life, written with great care and wit. Will leave you with a lump in your throat and a resolve to treat with more love and care the ones we love. "
— Carolinecarver, 3/16/2011 -
" What a wonderful tribute to his wife. I would consider my marriage a success if my husband could write such a loving book about me. "
— Sherry, 3/8/2011 -
" Long, loving marriages deserve more attention. "
— Amy, 3/1/2011
About Calvin Trillin
Calvin Trillin has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1963. He is the author of thirty books. His nonfiction includes Jackson, 1964; About Alice; and Remembering Denny. His humor writing includes books of political verse, comic novels, books on eating, and children’s poetry. In 2012, he was awarded the Thurber Prize for American Humor for Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin: Forty Years of Funny Stuff. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame.