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Black Alice
Co-written under the pseudonym Thom Demijohn. In the 1960s, while in Virginia blacks fighting for their civil rights face the Ku Klux Klan, a white girl is kidnapped in Baltimore. Little Alice Raleigh, eleven and blonde, heir to an immense fortune, is held for a ransom of one million dollars. Her captors conceive an ingenious way to make her invisible to police and federal agents by turning her skin brown, dying her hair and hiding her in a brothel run by an old black woman, somewhere near Norfolk. Slowly Alice adapts to her surprising new life. Then she finds out who was the instigator of her abduction. And real change begins...
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
July 9, 2020
The Meaning of Colour
This is a strange, hastily written, ill-edited rant against American racism. Its central trope is a pill that changes a white girl’s skin from white to dark almost instantly. Its context is the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, an epoch most had thought an irreversible watershed until the emergence of Donald Trump. Alas, there is no such thing as permanent progress, at least not in terms of American race relations. So despite its literary deficiencies, Black Alice still has merit - as an incitement to political action if nothing else
As far as I can make out, Disch is exploring motives, particularly motives about racial attitude. He starts the exploration sedately: Is the driving ambition to have a respectable funeral and to be buried permanently in a pleasant spot a neurosis or a reasonably modest goal in life? That depends, of course, on one’s perspective. For someone with a ‘future’, such a focus is merely morbid. But for someone whose future promises to be identical to a disappointing and painful past, it could be quite rational. At that point the moral calculus becomes less clear.
So Black Alice is about what makes things rational, and by inference, irrational. It might seem obvious that rationality is that which furthers one’s ultimate interests, whatever those interests might be - money, position, reputation, survival, or a peaceful grave in perpetuity. But actions to promote those interests are not simply instrumental; they also are valuable, or not, relative to each other. One’s interests therefore cannot be neatly divided into ends and means. Making these visible, even to oneself, is the foundation of justice, if justice is to be at all rational.
The difficulty is that perfectly rational behaviour, like a child who is being emotionally abused talking things out with an imaginary friend, can look odd, even deranged. What is tagged as irrational can’t be distinguished from what is unperceived rationality. But substantial parts of our civilisation are based on a rejection of this possible confusion of apparently unreasonable but actually misunderstood reason. The legal system would crumble if it were recognised as a principle, for example. But then again most marital arguments could be avoided if it were accepted by both parties. And, more generally, the motivations for rather horrid attitudes, like racially motivated hatred, could be seen clearly as banal by those who have them as well as by everyone else.
I’m guessing that there is at least one human institution which has no problem integrating ends and means, and through which motivations are made entirely visible: the brothel. And not just because of the uninhibited sex. Disch’s 11 year old victim-protagonist, kidnapped and held captive in one, treats it with the reason inherent in such a place. She intuitively accepts the rational efforts, strange as they may be, of the people around her. She knows she doesn’t understand. So she uses conversation with her imaginary friend to get to the bottom of things - not just the motivations of the kidnappers but of her own family as well.
Colour has a great deal to do with making motivations visible. Colour, of course, implies light. But light isn’t colour; it only allows colour. We become, we are, a colour in the light. White is an absence of colour; but so is black because even in the light, colour can’t be distinguished within it. In Black Alice, only people of colour are people at all. Those without colour are monsters, even if they cover themselves in the coloured silk of the Klan. They have no colour because they have no motivation that can stand the light. Their reasons are irrational; they are not just inhumane, they are inhuman.
This is a strange, hastily written, ill-edited rant against American racism. Its central trope is a pill that changes a white girl’s skin from white to dark almost instantly. Its context is the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s, an epoch most had thought an irreversible watershed until the emergence of Donald Trump. Alas, there is no such thing as permanent progress, at least not in terms of American race relations. So despite its literary deficiencies, Black Alice still has merit - as an incitement to political action if nothing else
As far as I can make out, Disch is exploring motives, particularly motives about racial attitude. He starts the exploration sedately: Is the driving ambition to have a respectable funeral and to be buried permanently in a pleasant spot a neurosis or a reasonably modest goal in life? That depends, of course, on one’s perspective. For someone with a ‘future’, such a focus is merely morbid. But for someone whose future promises to be identical to a disappointing and painful past, it could be quite rational. At that point the moral calculus becomes less clear.
So Black Alice is about what makes things rational, and by inference, irrational. It might seem obvious that rationality is that which furthers one’s ultimate interests, whatever those interests might be - money, position, reputation, survival, or a peaceful grave in perpetuity. But actions to promote those interests are not simply instrumental; they also are valuable, or not, relative to each other. One’s interests therefore cannot be neatly divided into ends and means. Making these visible, even to oneself, is the foundation of justice, if justice is to be at all rational.
The difficulty is that perfectly rational behaviour, like a child who is being emotionally abused talking things out with an imaginary friend, can look odd, even deranged. What is tagged as irrational can’t be distinguished from what is unperceived rationality. But substantial parts of our civilisation are based on a rejection of this possible confusion of apparently unreasonable but actually misunderstood reason. The legal system would crumble if it were recognised as a principle, for example. But then again most marital arguments could be avoided if it were accepted by both parties. And, more generally, the motivations for rather horrid attitudes, like racially motivated hatred, could be seen clearly as banal by those who have them as well as by everyone else.
I’m guessing that there is at least one human institution which has no problem integrating ends and means, and through which motivations are made entirely visible: the brothel. And not just because of the uninhibited sex. Disch’s 11 year old victim-protagonist, kidnapped and held captive in one, treats it with the reason inherent in such a place. She intuitively accepts the rational efforts, strange as they may be, of the people around her. She knows she doesn’t understand. So she uses conversation with her imaginary friend to get to the bottom of things - not just the motivations of the kidnappers but of her own family as well.
Colour has a great deal to do with making motivations visible. Colour, of course, implies light. But light isn’t colour; it only allows colour. We become, we are, a colour in the light. White is an absence of colour; but so is black because even in the light, colour can’t be distinguished within it. In Black Alice, only people of colour are people at all. Those without colour are monsters, even if they cover themselves in the coloured silk of the Klan. They have no colour because they have no motivation that can stand the light. Their reasons are irrational; they are not just inhumane, they are inhuman.
December 31, 2012
I thought this was a rather excellent book. I happen to get it from a random download from a friend and I am very glad that I did. I read this book in a day. May contain a spoiler but here is the plot summary:
During the 1960s, in Virginia, while the blacks fight for their civil rights, a young white girl is kidnapped in Baltimore. Little Alice Raleigh, eleven years and blond like corn, and heiress of an immense fortune, is held for a ransom of a million dollars. Her kidnappers, trying to make her invisible to the police officers and the federal agents searching for her, manage to brown her skin and her hair. They hold her under an assumed name in a house held by an old black woman, near Norfolk, which turns out to be a house of prostitution.
Slowly, Alice adapts herself to this surprising life amidst the black culture of the time period, completely new for her; at no point in the book is the young Alice made to participate in prostitution, and in fact Alice only has a vague idea of what goes on in behind closed doors in the house. Alice who is smart as a tack eventually finds clues that lead her to who her kidnapper is.
This is one of those reads that leave you contented. I like the characters very much so even the "bad guys", finding out who the kidnapper was left me surprised just as much as Alice was when she discovered. Any book that I can read in a day, go to sleep, wake up and still like it is a great book to me. I would highly recommend this book and read it again.
During the 1960s, in Virginia, while the blacks fight for their civil rights, a young white girl is kidnapped in Baltimore. Little Alice Raleigh, eleven years and blond like corn, and heiress of an immense fortune, is held for a ransom of a million dollars. Her kidnappers, trying to make her invisible to the police officers and the federal agents searching for her, manage to brown her skin and her hair. They hold her under an assumed name in a house held by an old black woman, near Norfolk, which turns out to be a house of prostitution.
Slowly, Alice adapts herself to this surprising life amidst the black culture of the time period, completely new for her; at no point in the book is the young Alice made to participate in prostitution, and in fact Alice only has a vague idea of what goes on in behind closed doors in the house. Alice who is smart as a tack eventually finds clues that lead her to who her kidnapper is.
This is one of those reads that leave you contented. I like the characters very much so even the "bad guys", finding out who the kidnapper was left me surprised just as much as Alice was when she discovered. Any book that I can read in a day, go to sleep, wake up and still like it is a great book to me. I would highly recommend this book and read it again.
June 14, 2015
I don't suppose I knew what I was in for when I picked Black Alice off the stack. A bit of weird Alice in Wonderland set in the Civil Rights era, perhaps?
What I got was so far beyond my expectations. The characters are three dimensional, the prose is rich, and the plot speeds up as the book progresses, building to a fantastic climax.
I'd almost describe it as Alice in Wonderland in the Civil Rights era... in the true crime genre, and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Brilliant. Unexpected. I am going to sing its praises.
What I got was so far beyond my expectations. The characters are three dimensional, the prose is rich, and the plot speeds up as the book progresses, building to a fantastic climax.
I'd almost describe it as Alice in Wonderland in the Civil Rights era... in the true crime genre, and directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Brilliant. Unexpected. I am going to sing its praises.
September 7, 2014
This is a surprisingly good book. It's surprising because neither Thomas Disch nor John Sladek wrote in this vein (perhaps why they hid under the name "Thom Demijohn").
Although some of the characters are caricatures, others are well thought out and grow throughout the book.
It's also an amazing slice of its time. The issues of race and prejudice it deals with so deftly are still with us, but they were nastier then. The book portrays this deftly while still keeping the reader's interest - it doesn't preach, it shows.
Although some of the characters are caricatures, others are well thought out and grow throughout the book.
It's also an amazing slice of its time. The issues of race and prejudice it deals with so deftly are still with us, but they were nastier then. The book portrays this deftly while still keeping the reader's interest - it doesn't preach, it shows.
August 6, 2014
This book will grab your interest in the first chapter and pull you through to the end as you have to read it in one sitting to find out how it ends. Really enjoyed this book. Has an interesting ending which I think really added to the overall appeal to this book. Will drop you right into the race riots and show you a different view of the U.S. through the eyes of a little black girl.
January 21, 2015
SPOILER ALERT
Wow..such a deceiving little book....At first you think this will be a charming twist on Alice in Wonderland. Yes, there are memorable characters and a few that don't ring true, and Alice does swallow a few pills, but the heartbeat of this book is much darker. No pun intended. A weak, worthless man tries unsuccessfully to convince his wife to have an abortion. The child is born..and becomes the heir to the family fortune, her parents dis-inherited. The evil man decides to drive his daughter insane. Then he decides to have her kidnapped so he can get the ransom money. Then he decides to kill her. In the meanwhile, the poor child becomes black, is hidden away in a whorehouse, gets abused and neglected and then lands in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan race riot in late 1960's America. It is quite an adventure for an 11, almost 12, year old child to bear, but Alice bears it thoughtfully.
I was quite solemn by the last chapters... Clara, a violent prostitute, who Alice notices has her first moment of "spontaneous kindness" after having taken a brutal beating defending her friend, the simple minded Fay. Bessy, who puts her own life at risk to save the very child she was paid to hide away...Good and bad. Black and white. People are not so one dimensional. The story was written some 45 years ago and it is in the style of the time, so some of the characters may seem more like caricatures to some, but look beneath the surface...there is more to be found...
Wow..such a deceiving little book....At first you think this will be a charming twist on Alice in Wonderland. Yes, there are memorable characters and a few that don't ring true, and Alice does swallow a few pills, but the heartbeat of this book is much darker. No pun intended. A weak, worthless man tries unsuccessfully to convince his wife to have an abortion. The child is born..and becomes the heir to the family fortune, her parents dis-inherited. The evil man decides to drive his daughter insane. Then he decides to have her kidnapped so he can get the ransom money. Then he decides to kill her. In the meanwhile, the poor child becomes black, is hidden away in a whorehouse, gets abused and neglected and then lands in the middle of a Ku Klux Klan race riot in late 1960's America. It is quite an adventure for an 11, almost 12, year old child to bear, but Alice bears it thoughtfully.
I was quite solemn by the last chapters... Clara, a violent prostitute, who Alice notices has her first moment of "spontaneous kindness" after having taken a brutal beating defending her friend, the simple minded Fay. Bessy, who puts her own life at risk to save the very child she was paid to hide away...Good and bad. Black and white. People are not so one dimensional. The story was written some 45 years ago and it is in the style of the time, so some of the characters may seem more like caricatures to some, but look beneath the surface...there is more to be found...
June 26, 2015
I picked this up because I'm interested in all things "Alice in Wonderland" related and it is co-written by a guy (Disch) known for dark science fiction. But this is not Sci/Fi and, apart from a few obvious references, has very little to do with "Alice in Wonderland". And yet, I'm so glad I found this. I devoured it from cover to cover with no stops to go read something else. (Many people read books that way, but I rarely do.)
The basics of the story is that a privileged little white girl gets kidnapped and gets to find out what it feels like for people to think she is black, and learns that not everyone is who they seem. She has to contend with being held prisoner in a very seedy brothel, and a confrontation with the KKK. Despite being put in an absurd and dangerous situation, she is never very scared and uses her wits to escape. (Just like the other Alice.) It is really a thrilling tale.
Two strangely coincidental big stories in the news just after I finished this book were about a white woman pretending to be black; and a mass murder in a black church by a white guy.
(The original book cover is off-putting, but I doubt the authors had much to do with that.)
The basics of the story is that a privileged little white girl gets kidnapped and gets to find out what it feels like for people to think she is black, and learns that not everyone is who they seem. She has to contend with being held prisoner in a very seedy brothel, and a confrontation with the KKK. Despite being put in an absurd and dangerous situation, she is never very scared and uses her wits to escape. (Just like the other Alice.) It is really a thrilling tale.
Two strangely coincidental big stories in the news just after I finished this book were about a white woman pretending to be black; and a mass murder in a black church by a white guy.
(The original book cover is off-putting, but I doubt the authors had much to do with that.)
October 31, 2014
Terrific, mordant, satirical thriller set in the mid 60s civil-rights era about a young heiress who is kidnapped,has her skin darkened with tanning drugs and hidden in a cathouse. The villain is a supreme monster of utter selfishness, but Disch and Sladek have keen eyes for human weakness and lacerating wit and intelligence to lay it bare. A brilliant piece of work.
January 28, 2010
This book looks into the question of race in a very intriguing manner. I have not come across any like it. The Ku Klux Klan and the Negro Rights defenders are portrayed not as just another part of history, but as people. Human beings. Homo sapiens. Just like you and me. Awesome!!
May 23, 2014
Interesting book, a mixture of crime, racism and friendship.
October 8, 2010
How do you make a kidnapped little white girl invisible in 1960's America? Turn her into a little black girl.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's a real historical artifact, having been written at the time it deals with, so you get mid-1960's Civil Rights themes from the point of view of 1968. While the race issues are central to the book they don't overpower the plot.
All the characters we spend time with have a lot of depth - the kidnappers have likeable qualities and the character who might be the hero (if it had been written more straightforwardly) is shown to have racist sympathies. Only minor disappointment was that there weren't more Alice in Wonderland touches. There are several in the early chapters, but once the plot gets moving they disappear.
It's a shame this book is out of print, as I'd recommend it.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It's a real historical artifact, having been written at the time it deals with, so you get mid-1960's Civil Rights themes from the point of view of 1968. While the race issues are central to the book they don't overpower the plot.
All the characters we spend time with have a lot of depth - the kidnappers have likeable qualities and the character who might be the hero (if it had been written more straightforwardly) is shown to have racist sympathies. Only minor disappointment was that there weren't more Alice in Wonderland touches. There are several in the early chapters, but once the plot gets moving they disappear.
It's a shame this book is out of print, as I'd recommend it.
July 14, 2012
Read this years and years and years ago, while I was in University I think, and it remains in my top shelf of books to this day. The story never left me. What a great adventure, not typical - at all.
December 23, 2013
This was an interesting book about racial tensions, kidnapping, proposition, and class warfare. I found it hard to put down once I started.
There were several twists and turns in the plot that I did not see coming.
There were several twists and turns in the plot that I did not see coming.
June 15, 2009
A solid genre exercise
June 27, 2016
This book was...interesting. There were some parts that I really just wanted to skip, and some of it confused me at first, but overall I think it was an okay book.
January 7, 2014
I expected Alice in wonderland with a racial twist, but ended up really enjoying this book.
February 19, 2014
What do you get when a master of black comedy and a master of parody team up? This. A weird, wonderful little novel.
November 9, 2019
I chose this book, initially, for the cover. I was curious what kind of story it would hold. The cover was certainly not one that would be published today, but the story is. Its points on racism, hatred and injustice are perennial issues. There will always be a battle between fear and hope.
The KKK content shows how a population can be ruled by hate from the top and all the layers of involvement within. But that isn’t what the bulk of Black Alice’s adventure is about. Through a young white girl disguised as a black girl, we follow her from a life of privilege into her predicament of dealing with and manoeuvring on the other side of the tracks.
She’s bright and with enough spice in her character to implement her own plan for survival. I enjoyed how all the characters were developed slowly. The reader is given clips of their past behaviour as the plot develops. It takes time to understand all the motivations.
Don’t judge this book or its characters by their covers.
The KKK content shows how a population can be ruled by hate from the top and all the layers of involvement within. But that isn’t what the bulk of Black Alice’s adventure is about. Through a young white girl disguised as a black girl, we follow her from a life of privilege into her predicament of dealing with and manoeuvring on the other side of the tracks.
She’s bright and with enough spice in her character to implement her own plan for survival. I enjoyed how all the characters were developed slowly. The reader is given clips of their past behaviour as the plot develops. It takes time to understand all the motivations.
Don’t judge this book or its characters by their covers.
August 6, 2018
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading BLACK ALICE, but was surprised by the subject matter as the book became, not just a kidnapping story, but a piece about the Civil Rights movement. Because the sixties are far behind us, this book is a time capsule. Some of the uses of nigger and language of that period are jarring at first, but the textures and struggles of blacks in the south in America resonate to this day.
Yes, it was a different fight that was happening and this little book comes at the civil rights movement in a way that is different. Not necessarily from Alice's point of view, but in many ways, you see through her eyes the injustice that is done to people that are only different in the color of their skin and the monsters that reside under the hoods of the KKK and those that hide behind the greed that lets them desire and take what they want without regard to human life.
This is a story that sits in between horrific and funny, sad and pathetic, innocent and evil. It is definitely worth reading -- specially in today's climate.
Yes, it was a different fight that was happening and this little book comes at the civil rights movement in a way that is different. Not necessarily from Alice's point of view, but in many ways, you see through her eyes the injustice that is done to people that are only different in the color of their skin and the monsters that reside under the hoods of the KKK and those that hide behind the greed that lets them desire and take what they want without regard to human life.
This is a story that sits in between horrific and funny, sad and pathetic, innocent and evil. It is definitely worth reading -- specially in today's climate.
August 30, 2017
An amazing novel: I was re-reading it for at least the third time, and it still had me so engrossed that I nearly missed my station twice. Would make a superb film with Quvenzhane Wallis as the lead, and with the Ku Klux Klan so much in the news, the timing would be perfect.
January 10, 2024
Wonderful little book! I rarely give out five stars but this one earns them!
December 4, 2014
Rather heavy-handed. And full of those cheap tricks writers use to add suspense to a story that ultimately isn't that exciting.
November 22, 2016
A science fiction writer writes a mystery story using Alice in wonderland as a basis. I loved this book. There was all kinds of Karma taking on people who deserved it.
December 7, 2018
Preposterous in the best way; mean and well meant and entertaining.
August 29, 2020
Alice is most certainly not in Wonderland...but Virginia in the late '60s holds a lot of parallels.
Alice is 12 year old heiress who is kidnapped and held for a $1,000,000 ransom. Her kidnappers drug her and feed her pills that change her, they don't make her smaller or grow larger, but they die her pale skin a coffee brown. They dye her blond hair black and use a curling iron to burn it into tight kinks. When she comes out of her daze, Alice isn't entirely sure who she is anymore. Is proper little Alice, or just another little 'Negro' girl that nobody will ever notice?
This is one of those rare crime thrillers that transcends into literature, beyond just the clever Alice's Adventures in Wonderland elements. Below the main kidnapping plot, this book is about race relations and tensions between the KKK and Civil Rights activists. What's really refreshing about this being a subtext of the book, instead of the main drive, is that it doesn't seem to take a position on the subject...at least not obviously (through Alice's actions, we know where the author's stand).
What we get is picture of this time and what was going on, through the eyes of an observer who has little vested interest in the outcome. It's a snapshot of contemporary social unrest from the past. Any story written today that would be set in that time would inevitably be a revisionist portrait.
Alice is 12 year old heiress who is kidnapped and held for a $1,000,000 ransom. Her kidnappers drug her and feed her pills that change her, they don't make her smaller or grow larger, but they die her pale skin a coffee brown. They dye her blond hair black and use a curling iron to burn it into tight kinks. When she comes out of her daze, Alice isn't entirely sure who she is anymore. Is proper little Alice, or just another little 'Negro' girl that nobody will ever notice?
This is one of those rare crime thrillers that transcends into literature, beyond just the clever Alice's Adventures in Wonderland elements. Below the main kidnapping plot, this book is about race relations and tensions between the KKK and Civil Rights activists. What's really refreshing about this being a subtext of the book, instead of the main drive, is that it doesn't seem to take a position on the subject...at least not obviously (through Alice's actions, we know where the author's stand).
What we get is picture of this time and what was going on, through the eyes of an observer who has little vested interest in the outcome. It's a snapshot of contemporary social unrest from the past. Any story written today that would be set in that time would inevitably be a revisionist portrait.
June 6, 2022
This was a very odd but intriguing story. The plot is rather devious, and almost unbelievable at moments with some rather demented and odd characters . It’s a sad tale, yet it’s main character, Alice, aka “Black Alice” is an intelligent and courageous little girl, and you can’t help but think that by the end of the book she will be okay because of the sheer strength of her character. It was written in the 1960’s and paints a vivid portrait of the true nature of what it was like to be black during the civil rights movement. Excellent short read!
November 6, 2021
for the time this was a very good book. I understand it because it was my time. The sixties were a time of changes, just as we are going through now. It saddens me to know and still remember those and these times. A good read.
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July 19, 2020elibrary
March 31, 2024
Brilliant novel from Thomas Disch and John Sladek (writing as "Thom Demijohn", get it?) about an emotionally abused pre-teen heiress who is kidnapped, disguised as a black child, and hidden away in a house of prostitution until her ransom of $1,000,000 is paid. Add overtones of "Alice In Wonderland", scathing observations on American racism, wicked humor... and the result is "Black Alice", a unique thriller with unusual depth. Thomas Disch is always worth reading. I'm not familiar with John Sladek, but I'm sure he helped too!
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