About Alice by Calvin Trillin

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Epitomizing what is best in personal narrative, noted humorist Calvin Trillin expands his acclaimed New Yorker essay into an eloquent, affecting eulogy for his adored wife, Alice -- the lovable foil in his hilarious ruminations on family life. Although she played literary "straight man" to her husband's more free-spirited persona, the real-life Alice was remarkably multifaceted. Beautiful, intelligent, and accomplished, she was an educator, a writer, and a cancer survivor who, in an ironic twist of fate, succumbed in 2001 to complications from radiation treatments. That she was also the abiding love of Trillin's life shines forth incandescently from every page of this graceful, understated tribute.

From the Publisher

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.

The New York Times - Peter Stevenson

This book can be seen as a worthy companion piece to other powerful accounts of spousal grief published in the last decade: Joan Didion’s tale of John Gregory Dunne’s fatal heart attack, John Bayley’s memoir of Iris Murdoch’s decline from Alzheimer’s and Donald Hall’s narration of Jane Kenyon’s death from leukemia.

Publishers Weekly

Trillin's narration of his loving reminiscences of his late wife Alice might best be described as an "unobtrusive" narration: he steps back and lets the words speak for themselves. Unlike many other autobiographical narrators, he does not try to create the illusion of spontaneity or intimacy, as though speaking directly to the listener. He reads clearly and with expression, but it is always obvious that he is reading from a printed text. As a result, this audio offers the same experience as reading the printed version: the listener is deeply moved by the words and gets a vivid picture of this complex and admirable woman, but the narration itself does not add additional emotional nuance or insight beyond what is in the words themselves. But the words are so powerful that Trillin's love and admiration for Alice still shine through. Simultaneous release with the Random House hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 30). (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Trillin (A Heckuva Job: More of the Bush Administration in Rhyme), a staff writer with the New Yorker since 1963, has often written about the members of his family, notably his wife, Alice, whom he married in 1965. A graduate of Wellesley and Yale, she was a writer and educator who survived a 1976 battle with lung cancer. In 1981, she founded a TV production company, Learning Designs, producing PBS's Behind the Scenes to teach children creative thinking; her book Dear Bruno (1996) was intended to reassure children who had cancer. A weakened heart due to radiation treatments led to her death on September 11, 2001, at age 63. Avoiding expressions of grief, Trillin unveils a straightforward, honest portrait of their marriage and family life in this slim volume, opening with the suggestion that he had previously mischaracterized Alice when he wrote her into "stories that were essentially sitcoms." Looking back on their first encounter, he then focuses on her humor, her beauty, her "child's sense of wonderment," her relationship with her daughters and her concern for others. Trillin's 12-page "Alice, Off the Page" was published earlier this year in the New Yorker, and his expansion of his original essay into this touching tribute is certain to stir emotions. (Jan. 2) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Trillin's tribute to his late wife, Alice, was originally published in the March 27, 2006, issue of The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1963. Trillin's fans came to know Alice as the muse, accomplice, and traveling companion often mentioned in his magazine pieces and books (e.g., Alice, Let's Eat). This book begins with comments about condolence letters the author received from his fans, who felt they knew Alice as a friend. Trillin recalls incidents and events that reveal Alice's best qualities. She was a devoted parent, he explains, who valued family dinners and involvement in school activities. Her love of teaching found her offering courses at correctional facilities and drug treatment programs. She also produced a PBS series on visual and performing arts for children. As the story reveals, Alice realized that how one holds up in the face of a life-threatening illness is the measure of whether one remains in control of one's identity. While not at the center of the story, Trillin's account of Alice's attitude about her cancer serves as a positive lesson. Further, the love and respect Trillin shows for his wife surpasses the length of this slim volume. Recommended for larger public libraries.-Joyce Sparrow, Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas Cty., FL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The New Yorker staff writer, with a substantial library of antic texts to his credit (Tepper Isn't Going Out, 2002, etc.), writes an affecting eulogy to his late wife. Alice figured in Trillin's work all through the years as a smart, reliable and straightforward woman, an independent thinker with an attraction to difficult topics. "She believed in the principle of enoughness," writes her husband, explaining it as the principle that no one needs more than enough of anything. Alice violated her own rule by being inordinately pretty, a gratuitous advantage she didn't mind possessing. She was a busy college teacher, TV producer, cancer survivor, friend and more: a wife, mother, example and muse. "Bud" Trillin met Alice at a publisher's party. A capable author in her own right, she possessed well-tempered sensibilities that made her a valuable reviewer of his drafts. In this disarming memoir, the author celebrates Alice's life without minimizing the pain he has felt since losing her. Death parted them, but not entirely. If Trillin is remembered years from now, Alice will be too. A small book that betokens a deep, undimmed affection.

Details from Seller

• ISBN: 0739342169
• Publisher: Random House Adult Trade Publishing Group
• Pub. Date: December 2006
• Condition:

Comments from the Seller: Brand new item. Over 6 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: R20091031024323H

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