A House for Alice

Ordinary People #2

by Diana Evans

Alice wants to go home to die. Her three daughters are divided on whether she stays or goes, and tasked with realising her dream of a house in Nigeria, conflict stirs and old wounds surface. Meanwhile their father wanders the flames of purgatory, unable to pass into the light. Will Alice get back home and complete the circle of her life, or will London be her final refuge?

Melissa, to her mother's regret, is long separated from Michael who has moved on to new love. Yet he still wonders if he will ever know anyone the way he knew Melissa, and she in turn is nostalgic for their once safe haven. Held together by their two children, it becomes clear that their own circle isn't quite broken.

Set against the shadows of Grenfell and a country in crisis, these ordinary people are faced with fundamental questions about who they are, what they want and where, and with whom, they want to be.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Family, Audiobook, Adult, Africa

343 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 6, 2023

About the author

Diana Evans was born and brought up in London. Her bestselling debut novel, 26a, won the inaugural Orange Award for New Writers and the British Book Awards deciBel Writer of the Year prize. It was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel, the Guardian First Book, the Commonwealth Best First Book and the Times/Southbank Show Breakthrough awards, and nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her second novel, The Wonder, was also published to critical acclaim, described by The Times as ‘the most dazzling depiction of the world of dance since Ballet Shoes‘. Evans was nominated for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction for her third novel, Ordinary People, which was a New Yorker, New Statesman and Financial Times book of the year, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, and won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature. Her fourth novel, A House for Alice, is the highly acclaimed follow-up, for which she was again shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. Evans is a former dancer, and her journalism, criticism and essays appear in among others Time Magazine, Vogue, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s Bazaar. She has been an associate lecturer in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. www.diana-evans.com

Reviews

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story begins with two tragedies- nonagenarian Cornelius Winston Pitt eager to live to see his one-hundredth birthday breathes his last after a fire engulfs his home. A fire in a high-rise residential apartment in West London on the same night left several residents homeless and many dead.

In the aftermath of Cornelius’ death, his estranged wife Alice and her three daughters Adel, Carol, and Melissa are left to grapple with their loss. Alice hopes to leave London and return to her native country Nigeria where she is building a home. As the story progresses, we meet Alice’s children and their families and how they cope with the death in their family and Alice’s impending plans to leave – old wounds, resentments, and disappointments rise to the surface and what is left to be seen is whether the family is brought closer or does tragedy and loss tear them further apart.

A House for Alice by Diana Evans is a well-written story that revolves around themes of family, tragedy, and how the definition of home can change over time. The story is set in 2017 and incorporates the real-life tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire in West London in the narrative and explores socio-political themes and topics like immigration, culture and racism. I should mention, I was unaware that this story was a sequel ( of sorts ) to one of the author’s previous works. My review is based on my experience with this book alone. There are several characters we need to keep track of, and it is often difficult to keep note of how they are related to one another. While I did like the writing and the character development, I was somewhat disappointed with the way the story flowed. I also found the short segment on Cornelius’ afterlife experience a tad disjointed with the overall narrative. The story is more about the family, the dynamics between the family members and though we go get a glimpse into Alice’s yearning to return to her native country, this aspect could have been explored in more depth. Overall, I thought that the story had potential but was not as emotionally impactful as I hoped.

Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, Anchor and NetGalley for the review copy. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel was published on September 12, 2023.

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[Tim Null · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book jumps from character to character and scene to scene like a befuddled bee at a tulip festival hopping from flower to flower before lingering briefly on a woman wearing last year's perfume.

"...[Meghan Markle] would have no power or impact at all in the strangling whiteness of the aristocracy and would eventually disappear inside it, be swallowed and crushed like Diana,..."

"She smelt of cherry brandy and the remnant of her perfume."

"I mean my friends, my people. All that's me. So if you're with me, you're with those things too."

[Jenny in Neverland · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC // I have a lot of thoughts about this book - both good and bad - so I'm going to try and be a coherent as possible with this review.

First of all, before I even go into writing style, the characters, the plot etc. I want to point out that A House For Alice is a follow-up to the authors other book, Ordinary People. I've not read any of the authors other work and I had absolutely no idea about this when I started reading.

Apparently it contains a lot of the same characters and whilst I did manage to read it and have a good understanding of the themes in the book, I do think I would have benefitted from reading Ordinary People. But alas, I didn't know.

First, the good parts. This book is beautifully written, lyrical almost poetic prose at times. There really were come stunning lines and plenty of quotes I've highlighted to go back to.

It gives a very in-depth look at families, love and what ties us together, without really having a main character, it allows you a peek into all members of the family, their relationships and dynamics. I've always enjoyed family dynamics, so I enjoyed this aspect of the book.

However, there were a LOT of characters. A LOT. Some of which, I just had no idea who I was reading about. Again, this might not have been the case had I read Ordinary People.

And whilst it was beautifully written, there were fair chunks that I completely skimmed or skipped over as I didn't really feel like they added anything to the part I was reading, nor would I miss anything important if I didn't read them.

Another aspect of the book that I wasn't too sure whether I felt okay about it or not was the references to Grenfell. It was an intriguing aspect for sure but considering the disaster itself is not even 10 years old yet, with investigations still very much ongoing and people still very much struggling because of it, I can't help but wonder if it was a bit too early to feature it in a work of fiction.

A House For Alice didn't have a particularly clear storyline with the actual "house for alice" portion of the story being a fairly miniscule amount, in relation to the rest of the book. It leaves it up for debate about where this book was going with the purpose of the story getting lost in amongst all the lyrical writing and dozens of characters.

Beautifully written but lacking direction and purpose with a few questionable plot lines.

[Catalina]

DNF at 35%. I really loved the opening scene with Conrnelius and his clocks, and even the following pages chronicling the Grenfell tower fire. I found the writing remarkable and I was really looking forward to reading A House for Alice. But after this initial pages it descended in name throwing with pretty much no way to learn who is who and how all this characters were connected. And while the focus is then turned to particular people and it becomes somewhat easier to identify some of the characters, I've felt the writing has lost some of the lushness and the over detailed way everything was presented made for a slightly boring read. Turns out this is due to A House for Alice being a sequel to Evans's debut, fact that is not clear at all. After having a go at reading it, I would say it's going to be a very hard read as a standalone, it must absolutely be marketed as a sequel.

*Book from NetGalley with many thanks to the publisher for the opportunity!

[lostcupofstars · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I’m still struggling to understand what this book was trying to achieve.

It was a poor start for me; I’m never really a fan of writing styles that involve removing punctuation and I personally feel like adding real life traumatic events into a work of fiction is somewhat tone deaf.

We’re not talking about events that happened centuries ago. Grenfell was only 5/6 years ago and the government still have not provided the right support and after care to those involved. Some still haven’t been properly rehoused! So to add it in to a work of fiction (especially without it actually being relevant to the plot!!) felt insensitive and it didn’t sit right with me at all.

Past that, there was too much going on but also nothing really happening for a lot of this, and then there was a random sketch put in that I still can’t make sense of.

I think this is a book that needed a much clearer purpose and a lot more edits.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

We never really get away from our parents
from A House for Alice by Diana Evans

Just before his 100th birthday, a man dies in a fire. He has been estranged from most of the family, his wife Alice having long moved out. One daughter has been caring for him, but all the daughters carry the trauma of his alcoholic abuse.

For years, he had been sending money to Nigeria to build Alice a house there. Alice knows the time is soon coming when she will be tired, of life, and of life in London and ready to return to her homeland to live her last years there.

Her daughters don’t all agree with her. With their messy lives, divorces, and problem children, they want their mother near. To care for her. To be their center.

A House for Alice touches on so many themes: a dysfunctional family and family trauma, the challenges of marriage and its failure, racism, the refugee experience, the love for a child, failing a child, failing oneself, the view from old age.

I loved how the author took me into these character’s messy lives, the poignant insights into their struggles. I marveled at descriptive passages of such beauty. The chapter describing the morning divorced parents take their son to the hospital for surgery was so beautiful, so real, the experience transforming for the parents. With this combination of insight, gorgeous writing, and social commentary it’s a must read.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some books where I feel close to the characters, even some level of fictophilia. I'm sure I'm not alone with this among my fiction-loving friends.

I loved Diana Evans' use of language in A House for Alice, her use of adjectives to communicate the complicated nature of feelings: "he’d thought it pretentious, earnest, western, sanctimonious, selfish, self-important, impractical, pseudo-buddhist and yogic, but now he could see her logic" (p. 199). I enjoyed A House for Alice and kept reading, but this was not a book that I wanted to keep going, not a book that I will keep thinking about.

I think there are several reasons. Her language seems designed to impress rather than engage. (I imagine Paul Hollywood's feedback if she were a contestant on Great British Bake Off: beautiful but needs more flavor.) She often used third person omniscient, which can leave one feeling connected but often doesn't. The cast of characters was huge, and I often wondered who a character was and why he/she was there. Some of the characters' dilemmas were such that I, the reader, found myself prompting them from off-stage. ("No! Don't go there!") Several characters were opaque to the reader – until the end of the book when Evans removed our veils. If this had been a mystery, it would have felt unfair.

This doesn't mean that I didn't like any of the characters: Ria, Melissa, and Michael were favorites, while I never liked either Carol or Adel. I liked the political dilemmas the characters faced as Blacks in London – as immigrants, as parents of Black boys, as caregivers to a cantankerous and abusive father, as parents to children with mental health and criminal justice issues, etc. – but I didn't feel that I got new insights in the ways that I'd expected.

And, yet… Alice would occasionally say something about her desire to move back to Nigeria that made me think, made me smile:

That was why she wanted her own house, to make herself strong again, even just for the leaving. “He take my life,” she said. “I blame myself for stay with him, I didn’t know, I didn’t know where else but be with you children.” Taking her napkin, she wiped it roughly across her face and eyes, then screwed it up in her hand. “I try to feel strong...it’s misfortune, my life is still here...” (p. 315)

[Melanie Caldicott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Ordinary People and like many have commented didn't realise this was the sequel. Evans is brilliant at characterisation and describing scenes vividly. I thought about times that this book almost read like linked short stories and, whilst some were stronger than others, I really enjoyed the deep dive into the characters lives told through pivotal moments. Set to a backdrop of Grenfell and commentary on political racism, this book was a thoroughly good read.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

[Beth Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel that the synopsis of this book wasn't very accurate. 1) This is a sequel, and it doesn't mention it in the listing. Ordinarily, I wouldn't mind picking up the second book without reading the first, but I think the backstory on some of these characters is important, and the author doesn't rehash any of it. She basically plops you in and doesn't say who anyone is other than Cornelius, Alice and their daughters and the grandkids. That would be fine if they were the only characters, but there are a lot of additional characters. 2) Figuring out the housing situation for Alice is only about 20% - 25% of the novel. I thought it would be the main plotline, given the title and the synopsis. No, we spend plenty of time at the dance club with ... refer to my problem #1.

Individual scenes were actually quite good, but I would have appreciated more setting up of scenes. Who are these people and how do they know each other? Another annoyance is that we'd be two pages into a new chapter with only "she" mentioned before we were told whose perspective we were in. Honestly, if the author was more clear with whose perspective we were in and how the characters in the scene related to each other and Alice/Alice's daughters, I would have likely given it a whole star more.

I didn't know about the Grenfell incident. It felt like a number of things were mentioned and then dropped, so the novel felt rather scattered and choppy.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Shavon · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 57%. Now, I rarely do not finish but after trying three months I just can’t do it.

Glows: author’s writing is beautiful. I would love to try another piece only because of this. Also the cover is beautiful.

Grows: 1. Why would no one share or it not be heavily stated that this is a second body of work featuring these characters!?! THIS BOOK SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED A STANDALONE.
2. The house for Alice was not the focal point and I was left confused by all the characters and the long descriptions that didn’t always seem relevant .
3. This books is discussing a popular event but it is so recent and apparently not global that I spent more time figuring out what it was then paying attention to the book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to review it !

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. It had a lot of potential but it was choppy and with too many poorly developed characters.

[Emily Petch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh dear. It started off really well - the twin events of the Grenfell fire and a domestic fire was an intriguing start. I hoped that there would be more on how these events affected on characters and their environments. However things suddenly took a turn for the bizarre, including a brief sketch involving a man trying to get into heaven.

I don’t know if it was confusing or I just couldn’t get into the book, but the mass of characters and their connections baffled me to the point that I just didn’t care. At this point I gave up.

[Karen · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
Not what I expected. With the interesting and terrifying opening about the Grenfell Tower fires in London, I expected the book would be about that topic. Instead, it seemed to be a look at various characters' unhappiness. I got bored at about 4 hours and could no longer remember the various characters and how they related to the fire and the death of one person.

[Emily Trone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can appreciate the metaphors in this book and grasped a much better understanding on the book doing internet research on it….But I was so lost… some parts were so random. Too many characters. The plot wasn’t driven. Writing was extremely poetic.

[Lisa Goodmurphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars
A beautifully written family drama set in London at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire.

Cornelius Pitt, a man in his '90s, dies alone in a fire sparked by a cigarette left burning in an ashtray in his home the same night that 72 people die in a fire at Grenfell Tower apartments. In the aftermath of her estranged husband's death, a fiercely determined Alice declares that she wants to return to her Nigerian homeland as she has never felt that she belonged in England but her daughters are divided on whether she should go. Adel is dismayed at the thought of Alice leaving London and her children and grandchildren behind to live alone in Nigeria while Carol thinks they should respect their mother's wishes. Melissa just wants to keep the peace between family members while she continues to put the pieces of her life back together following her marriage breakdown.

A House for Alice is a story told in lyrical prose of love, loss, and the loneliness of people struggling to find a home/a place where they belong. It includes complicated familial and romantic relationships, racism, and political and social issues with the Grenfell tragedy and other current events such as Harry and Meghan's wedding, Brexit and Boris Johnson's blundering in the background.

Told from many viewpoints, the novel reads like interconnected short stories and can be a bit hard to follow at times because of the abundance of characters including the members of the Pitt family as well as Melissa's ex-husband, Michael, and his new wife, Nicole, and friends Damian, Stephanie and their family. This novel features some of the same characters from the author's earlier novel, Ordinary People, which is about the breakdown of Melissa and Michael's relationship and their friendship with Damian and Stephanie. I enjoyed A House for Alice as a standalone but wish I would have known that it was a sequel of sorts and read Ordinary People first.

[Carmijn Gerritsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel follow the past and present experiences of a Black British family in the contemporary socio-political landscape. It merges the personal and the political as the various characters reflect on the tragic Grenfell Tower fire whilst struggling with their our own notions of 'home' and belonging. This provides an interesting dimension to the story, and foregrounds discussions of displacement and community. The incorporation of representation and spoken word is provocative here as well, but could have been explores even more. However, it was sometimes difficult to follow the various intersecting and non-linear narrative strands.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really dragged myself through this one. Wanted to love it SO bad, but didn’t. There’s way too many characters and it jumps between each person’s story really sporadically. Most of the time I had no idea who was who and what was going on. Also, apparently this is actually a sequel? Maybe I would’ve connected with the characters more had I read the first one, but also still think I would’ve found this book jarring and confusing. Sad times, but onto the next.

[Bill Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the emotionally-charged writing and the complicated depictions of relationships (parents, children, siblings, spouses, friends and lovers) in turmoil and conflict (and some few but transcendent moments of joy). The narrative jumps around and is at times disjointed…but stick with it, and it all comes together thematically…and both movingly and meaningfully.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tricky one. I agree with others that there were too many characters and storylines making it hard to follow what was going on. I think this would have made more sense in form of multiple short stories. I did like how the book approached topics like mental health, divorce and family conflicts.. it didn’t feel dramatised or wanted to see the positives but more like real life.. I think this book could have been much better with the right editor

[Sharon :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75.stars This book was hard to stick with initially. Too much jammed into one book. I would have preferred a series. But once I bought into all the storylines it got my attention! #AlwaysSupportingDiversityReads

[Kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a deeply compelling and emotionally charged read that will tug at your heartstrings. The story draws you in quickly, and each page is anticipated eagerly. However, the abundance of characters may require occasional rereading to keep track of them.

The novel delves into the tragic loss of Cornelius Winston Pit in a fire at Grenfall Tower, where many residents, including him, lost their lives. Cornelius, living among paper clutter, died alone in the fire. He was married to Alice, who was living separately due to their differences, with her yearning to return to Nigeria. However, her family struggles to accept her decision to live there.

As the family patriarch, Cornelius's death hits his children and family hard, leading them to search for closure and answers about what happened. The story explores the cracks forming in the family's foundation, as they all grapple with their individual problems and secrets, compounded by the traumatic loss.

Through its narrative, the book sheds light on the ongoing struggles of racism and the quest for justice and equality in marginalized communities. Diana Evans masterfully weaves a poignant tale that leaves a lasting impact.

[Eliza Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

You need to read Diana Evans. Her prose is gorgeous and dreamlike, and her characters are fleshed out and real, even the ones whose stories are relatively peripheral. This book is both political and beautiful, grounded in real world events but it also reads like a poem. I’m glad I read Ordinary People first but it’s far from a prerequisite.

[Linden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea this was a sequel, but once I sorted out all the characters I enjoyed it very much. The writing is excellent. The premise is that the matriarch of a large London family is longing to return to Nigeria, the place of her birth. It takes place at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire.

[Clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

To put it simply, Diana Evans is a wonderfully talented writer and I’m so happy I discovered this book. Her prose is poetic and deep, with every line revealing an intimate detail about the character’s thoughts and motivations. I’ve never highlighted so many passages in a book before and even after finishing this yesterday, I keep going back to reread some of my favorite quotes. I could not put this book down!

The story is about the the relationship between a mother and her children as they navigate their life after their husband/father’s death in London. The three sisters have a close yet strained relationship as they try to manage their own complicated lives as well as deciding how to help their mother, Alice, enter the next phase of her life. The story focuses on Melissa, the youngest sister, and her relationships with her ex-husband, Michael, and children. I found the dynamic between Michael and Nicole (his wife) to be very interesting, particularly Michael’s struggle with loving two people, who bring out two different sides of him.

I also found Alice’s story heartbreaking as I read about her hopes of a new life in London after moving to Nigeria, only for that to be crushed in a loveless relationship. Reading about her dreams and struggle to move back to Nigeria in her final years really moved me. She is such a dynamic character and the author does a great job showing her conflicted feelings toward her life in the UK and her relationship with her daughters and husband.

The ability to make leftovers in a freezer and the killing of a spider sound poetic just speaks to the author’s beautiful talent with words, which you can see here:

"Alice went quickly to her freezer, her city of ice, the chicken in reserve, the random renditions of rice (puddings, jollof).”

“Wasps flew in through the skylights and smashed against the ceiling fan, spiders nestled in the sloping corners, when they ventured out she faced them with an upside-down cup and a postcard, the way Michael used to do. Arachnophobia was for lovers, a luxury.”

I found it easy to keep up with the introduction of new characters throughout the book, due to the the author’s talent of being able to create such distinct personalities, while avoiding boxing characters into stereotypes with cookie-cutter likes and dislikes. I love when I think I can predict what a character will think/do next and they surprise me with a thought or viewpoint that I didn’t expect from them. This books portrays how we all have several sides to us and shows us how we pick and choose what we want to show depending on who we’re with. The characters are so rich and I felt like I knew them personally. I’m still thinking about them and I look forward to reading Ordinary People, the book that precedes A House for Alice.

There were many times when I had to set the book down and reflect on a passage that I had just read. It is rare for me to be so deeply moved by a book, a book that puts feelings into words, feelings which I’ve never been able to clearly express myself. I adored this book and I’m a new fan of Diana Evans.

Thank you to the author, Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage & Anchor, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy so I can provide an honest review.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 3 out of 5]

It happens sometimes that I’m reading a book at 4.30 am because the baby is awake, and ideally the book will lift me out of the weariness and frustration of those moments, but this one didn’t.

But I don’t know.

Apparently I read and really enjoyed the first book in this series, but I have no recollection. Perhaps if I did it would have been easier to keep track of the characters, and feel more invested in their stories. As it was, reading it was unsatisfying. There were too many characters and the pages they got dedicated to them were disproportionate. Maybe it makes sense in the wider context of the series, but I can’t remember the first one.

And yet there were times when I was moved and intrigued.

I’m usually very comfortable with the highly subjective nature of my book reviews. I don’t think there are objective readers. But maybe this really is a case of “it’s not you, it’s me, and my terrible memory”.


Maybe from now on I’ll be forced to read standalone books with a maximum of 4 characters.


At least until we’re all sleeping through the night.

2.5???

[chels marieantoinette]

This book was sent to me by the publisher and, while I appreciate the gift, I wish I’d known it was the 2nd in a “series” before keeping it on my shelf. The first - Ordinary People - seems right up my ally (as a Normal People fangirl), but trying to read the 2nd without really knowing these people or the overall writing style was somewhat difficult. I didn’t feel connected to anyone and maybe I would have had I read the first. Overall, though, I just felt like this book was boring and I didn’t really care that much about the characters or what they were going through. It’s somewhat tragic and thoughtful, but didn’t grab my attention at all.

[Laura Hernández · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me duele no darle las 5 estrellas porque me encantaron todas y cada una de las historias entrelazadas pero me habría gustado más que fueran introducidas de manera coherente, pues a veces saltaban de una a otra de manera aleatoria para luego volver a otra y no tenía mucho sentido. Pero quitando eso, me encantó :'

[Alice Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful exploration of the politics of home and family. I enjoyed the familiarity of a story set in London, in 2017 with memorialisations of the aftermath of Grenfell, Brexit, Austerity, Windrush scandal etc. It’s more about the people and places, and what connects them, than plot, or even individual characters in depth.
I found Avril and Damian’s story particularly moving.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars