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Alice & Oliver
A heart-breaking, page-turning, life-affirming novel about love, marriage, family, and fighting for your life, for readers of Jonathan Franzen and Meg Wolitzer.
Alice Culvert is a force: passionate, independent, smart, and gorgeous, she—to her delight—attracts attention wherever she goes, even amid the buzz of mid-90s New York. In knee-high boots, with her newborn daughter, Doe, strapped to her chest, Alice is one of those people who just seem so vividly alive, which makes her cancer diagnosis feel almost incongruous. How could such a being not go on? But all at once, Alice’s existence, and that of her husband Oliver, is reduced to a single purpose: survival. As they combat the disease, the couple must also face off against the serpentine healthcare system, the good intentions of loved ones, and the deep, dangerous stressors that threaten to push the two of them apart. With veracity, humor, wisdom, and love, Charles Bock navigates one family’s unforgettable story - inspired by his own.
Alice Culvert is a force: passionate, independent, smart, and gorgeous, she—to her delight—attracts attention wherever she goes, even amid the buzz of mid-90s New York. In knee-high boots, with her newborn daughter, Doe, strapped to her chest, Alice is one of those people who just seem so vividly alive, which makes her cancer diagnosis feel almost incongruous. How could such a being not go on? But all at once, Alice’s existence, and that of her husband Oliver, is reduced to a single purpose: survival. As they combat the disease, the couple must also face off against the serpentine healthcare system, the good intentions of loved ones, and the deep, dangerous stressors that threaten to push the two of them apart. With veracity, humor, wisdom, and love, Charles Bock navigates one family’s unforgettable story - inspired by his own.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published April 5, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 403 reviews
June 17, 2017
My mind is swimming with thoughts...
but I'll simply jump right in and see where this review takes me.
First off - I agree with other readers -that there were parts that didn't inspire. Its way too tempting to 'skim-read' a book like this.
BUT.....there were parts that equally kept me glued to this story - completely engaged.
There were parts that I KNEW were sooooo real that I felt SICK TO MY STOMACH AND DOWN RIGHT ANGRY.
Why??? Welcome to the United States Healthcare System!!!! I'm sooo outraged at
our healthcare system. ITS INSANE!!!!!!
I remember what Paul and I went through just a few years ago when he had a serious mountain biking accident. Paul is a building contractor- upscale home remodeling in Silicon Valley. He had been paying into his workmen's Comp. insurance for 35 years -- monthly payments for 35 years. He never once needed their services. What he and I through to claim 'what-he-deserved' BECAUSE he was a contractor - owning his own business -and not a carpenter- he almost got NOTHING.... where he was due the MAXIMUM payout each month.
It took a year to get paid - the bureaucracy was a nightmare. We 'hired' an expert to fight for Paul's rights. Paul was out of work for a year: had 3 surgeries. I had two surgeries shortly after his. Besides both of us being in bed or visiting the hospital in SF for a year-- we were living off of our savings. We were able to survive - but what if we couldn't? And the PAPER WORK - and ongoing PHONE CALLS - my GOD!!! Awful!!!! We DID WANT to SCREAM at them --but didn't.
Well.... for me... I can testify that author Charles Block got soooooo much right about the HEALTHCARE SYSTEM in the United States!!!
When my friend had cancer in Montreal... neither she or her husband ever had to worry about the bills being paid. She was even treated to extra yoga relaxation classes.
Ok....so forgive me -- but it's just very frustrating. It's getting harder and harder for young adults to be able to even pay for medical insurance today in our country.
What makes THIS story, "Alice & Oliver" especially affecting is knowing it's inspired by the authors life.
Alice and Oliver were raising an 'infant' when she gets diagnosed with leukemia. It's doesn't seem right - so unfair.
One of my closest friend's died - at age 32 of leukemia four years ago in July. He had gotten married the year before- got a great job in Washington DC- they had just moved into a new house - and we're trying to have a baby. The situation was 'without' an infant - but also a young could just starting their life together. The news of Cancer - somehow just feels that much more staggering.
Even though this book is long - parts were took some effort to stay with specific detail information--we get the FULL PICTURE of 'what happens -- and a darn good understanding.
For example: "I took a quick look at your aspirated slides. Probably 95% of the cells look clean. But that 5%, they're a question".
"Eisenstatt was saying that the structure of Alice's leukemia cells was particularly complex: it was possible the cancer could go dormant for a time, then re-emerge. He was saying those 5% cells might just be regular, small, dad, non-cancerous cells, in which case everything was fine. The other possibility – – he spoke as if he had no choice--these cells are, in fact, cancerous".
Also.... can you imagine, you just had a baby girl, and you're not even allowed to hold her for a month. Your immune system just not strong enough, you're in remission, but it needs to stay that way so you can be Brian for chemotherapy. Having a baby around means 'risks': GERMS!
And how about this?
"I pray every day your wife to survive came through the phone, Blauner pausing for effect. And when she does get through this, in all candor, she's got a lot to deal with. One little germ: she's no longer going to be eligible for life insurance. So your parents, her parents, too -if the have any money--start putting it away for your daughter. Trust fund. College fund. Something".
"I hadn't even thought of that--"
"Right, why would you? Good I remembered. And when you file your joint return and itemize the deductions ...... ". GET THE POINT???? It goes on and on and on with TIPS - GOOD ADVICE of things which needs to be thought of WHILE what you are REALLY WORRIED ABOUT --- is will my wife live? JUST SAVE HER!!!
It's all so sad to have to be dealing with the most frightening nightmare of your life and then have to be thinking THE BILLS! However, Charles Block educates the reader about the realities of what can happen to a family during a devastating illness. He underlines the importance of donations.
My SAME friend in Montreal who is the life today - a Cancer Survivor.... had a young granddaughter with a very rare form of leukemia and what saved her life was a donation from somebody here in the United States. It was very touch and go for awhile. Her story made national news - finding a donor for this toddler was getting quite difficult.
My rating....4.5 stars .......( round up to 5) .....I'm clear it's not a book for everyone.... but it's heartbreaking powerful, HIGHLY INFORMATIVE!!! -
I think many readers - like me - come away feeling the deepest respect and compassion for the author... as this story was inspired from his personal true story.
but I'll simply jump right in and see where this review takes me.
First off - I agree with other readers -that there were parts that didn't inspire. Its way too tempting to 'skim-read' a book like this.
BUT.....there were parts that equally kept me glued to this story - completely engaged.
There were parts that I KNEW were sooooo real that I felt SICK TO MY STOMACH AND DOWN RIGHT ANGRY.
Why??? Welcome to the United States Healthcare System!!!! I'm sooo outraged at
our healthcare system. ITS INSANE!!!!!!
I remember what Paul and I went through just a few years ago when he had a serious mountain biking accident. Paul is a building contractor- upscale home remodeling in Silicon Valley. He had been paying into his workmen's Comp. insurance for 35 years -- monthly payments for 35 years. He never once needed their services. What he and I through to claim 'what-he-deserved' BECAUSE he was a contractor - owning his own business -and not a carpenter- he almost got NOTHING.... where he was due the MAXIMUM payout each month.
It took a year to get paid - the bureaucracy was a nightmare. We 'hired' an expert to fight for Paul's rights. Paul was out of work for a year: had 3 surgeries. I had two surgeries shortly after his. Besides both of us being in bed or visiting the hospital in SF for a year-- we were living off of our savings. We were able to survive - but what if we couldn't? And the PAPER WORK - and ongoing PHONE CALLS - my GOD!!! Awful!!!! We DID WANT to SCREAM at them --but didn't.
Well.... for me... I can testify that author Charles Block got soooooo much right about the HEALTHCARE SYSTEM in the United States!!!
When my friend had cancer in Montreal... neither she or her husband ever had to worry about the bills being paid. She was even treated to extra yoga relaxation classes.
Ok....so forgive me -- but it's just very frustrating. It's getting harder and harder for young adults to be able to even pay for medical insurance today in our country.
What makes THIS story, "Alice & Oliver" especially affecting is knowing it's inspired by the authors life.
Alice and Oliver were raising an 'infant' when she gets diagnosed with leukemia. It's doesn't seem right - so unfair.
One of my closest friend's died - at age 32 of leukemia four years ago in July. He had gotten married the year before- got a great job in Washington DC- they had just moved into a new house - and we're trying to have a baby. The situation was 'without' an infant - but also a young could just starting their life together. The news of Cancer - somehow just feels that much more staggering.
Even though this book is long - parts were took some effort to stay with specific detail information--we get the FULL PICTURE of 'what happens -- and a darn good understanding.
For example: "I took a quick look at your aspirated slides. Probably 95% of the cells look clean. But that 5%, they're a question".
"Eisenstatt was saying that the structure of Alice's leukemia cells was particularly complex: it was possible the cancer could go dormant for a time, then re-emerge. He was saying those 5% cells might just be regular, small, dad, non-cancerous cells, in which case everything was fine. The other possibility – – he spoke as if he had no choice--these cells are, in fact, cancerous".
Also.... can you imagine, you just had a baby girl, and you're not even allowed to hold her for a month. Your immune system just not strong enough, you're in remission, but it needs to stay that way so you can be Brian for chemotherapy. Having a baby around means 'risks': GERMS!
And how about this?
"I pray every day your wife to survive came through the phone, Blauner pausing for effect. And when she does get through this, in all candor, she's got a lot to deal with. One little germ: she's no longer going to be eligible for life insurance. So your parents, her parents, too -if the have any money--start putting it away for your daughter. Trust fund. College fund. Something".
"I hadn't even thought of that--"
"Right, why would you? Good I remembered. And when you file your joint return and itemize the deductions ...... ". GET THE POINT???? It goes on and on and on with TIPS - GOOD ADVICE of things which needs to be thought of WHILE what you are REALLY WORRIED ABOUT --- is will my wife live? JUST SAVE HER!!!
It's all so sad to have to be dealing with the most frightening nightmare of your life and then have to be thinking THE BILLS! However, Charles Block educates the reader about the realities of what can happen to a family during a devastating illness. He underlines the importance of donations.
My SAME friend in Montreal who is the life today - a Cancer Survivor.... had a young granddaughter with a very rare form of leukemia and what saved her life was a donation from somebody here in the United States. It was very touch and go for awhile. Her story made national news - finding a donor for this toddler was getting quite difficult.
My rating....4.5 stars .......( round up to 5) .....I'm clear it's not a book for everyone.... but it's heartbreaking powerful, HIGHLY INFORMATIVE!!! -
I think many readers - like me - come away feeling the deepest respect and compassion for the author... as this story was inspired from his personal true story.
February 28, 2016
I got about 25% of the way through this book by sheer force of will. I worked in healthcare for years, so that might explain why I was bored to tears by the detail of the medical diagnosis and treatment. I felt like I was back at work. Also did not like these characters at all. It found the book poorly written and confusing. The author does nothing to help the reader understand the shift to another time period.
I just decided that I would rather spend this time on another book. Not my cup of tea at all.
I just decided that I would rather spend this time on another book. Not my cup of tea at all.
February 4, 2016
Received an ARC from Netgalley.
I tried . . . But the author's writes in a way that you can't tell if he's talking about the present day or some time in the past. Too confusing, too slow, and he's trying to hard. Decided to give up and move onto something else.
I tried . . . But the author's writes in a way that you can't tell if he's talking about the present day or some time in the past. Too confusing, too slow, and he's trying to hard. Decided to give up and move onto something else.
July 3, 2016
This is probably a 2.5 star book for me. I would like to be able to round the rating up to 3 stars because of the subject matter - the journey and struggle of a young mother (and her husband) of a 6 month old baby diagnosed with life threatening leukemia - but I just can't. I found this book deadly dull. It was a slog to finish. I dreaded picking it up but was determined to finish it.
I felt almost nothing for the characters. So strange. How could this story not tug at my emotions? Oddly flat, weirdly boring. The fact that I couldn't care less whether the protagonist lived or died says it all. It is a relief to be done with this book.
I felt almost nothing for the characters. So strange. How could this story not tug at my emotions? Oddly flat, weirdly boring. The fact that I couldn't care less whether the protagonist lived or died says it all. It is a relief to be done with this book.
August 9, 2016
I tried to relate to Alice & Oliver, but they were among the most obnoxious people I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. I know I was meant to empathize with Alice after her leukemia diagnosis, but if I am honest, I was rooting for them both to die just to spare me any more of their awfulness.
August 17, 2015
This one was purely for pleasure. A galley came across my desk. The book is devastatingly beautiful.
April 21, 2016
I knew almost from the beginning that this might hit a little too close to home. Not that I have leukemia, like Alice is diagnosed with but I have been hospitalized more times than I like, and the ambulance ride, the insurance difficulties, the hospital setting all served as reminders. But, what Alice goes through is so many times worse. I can't even imagine some of the things she had to deal with, her and her husband. Horrifying.
This is probably the most complete fiction book on cancer and the treatment, the effects, the strain on family, marriage, the frustration with doctor, nurses, insurance companies, loss and the frightening feelings that you may not be alive to take care of your baby daughter. Difficult subject, but the author does not write in a manner to wring the last shred of emotion out of the reader, she skirts this and just presents things as they are. The husband trying to keep his company going, support his wife, wrangle with the insurance for coverage of the many tests and treatments. The author breaks this up by going into their pasts, how they met, how Alice was before her cancer, in her youth, their lives together, their normal every day struggles. These, are much needed breaks from the intensity and the effects of Alice's treatments. Luckily, Alice has many friends, people who spend time with her, encourage her, keep her going and she has a wonderfully caring mother.
Good book, hard subject.
This is probably the most complete fiction book on cancer and the treatment, the effects, the strain on family, marriage, the frustration with doctor, nurses, insurance companies, loss and the frightening feelings that you may not be alive to take care of your baby daughter. Difficult subject, but the author does not write in a manner to wring the last shred of emotion out of the reader, she skirts this and just presents things as they are. The husband trying to keep his company going, support his wife, wrangle with the insurance for coverage of the many tests and treatments. The author breaks this up by going into their pasts, how they met, how Alice was before her cancer, in her youth, their lives together, their normal every day struggles. These, are much needed breaks from the intensity and the effects of Alice's treatments. Luckily, Alice has many friends, people who spend time with her, encourage her, keep her going and she has a wonderfully caring mother.
Good book, hard subject.
February 15, 2017
This review is provided to NetGalley on an uncorrected proof.
This book was difficult to read not only because of the subject matter but also the author's writing style. I have never seen such disjointed writing. Half the time I wasn't sure who was speaking and what the timeframe was. Also, the author used the longest sentences; his excessive use of semi-colons; I lost track of the thought; then realized I didn't care. The random insertion of case studies did nothing to help the confusion.
This book was difficult to read not only because of the subject matter but also the author's writing style. I have never seen such disjointed writing. Half the time I wasn't sure who was speaking and what the timeframe was. Also, the author used the longest sentences; his excessive use of semi-colons; I lost track of the thought; then realized I didn't care. The random insertion of case studies did nothing to help the confusion.
April 17, 2016
I got halfway through this book and decided not to finish it. I really wanted to feel sorry for the main characters because they were going through such a difficult time. However, I kept getting annoyed with the husband, and then I felt guilty feeling annoyed, as this book is based on his experience of losing his wife to leukemia. So I gave up. The book received glowing reviews, including one from Maureen Corrigan.
April 16, 2016
3 1/2 stars. Alice & Oliver was hard to read. The topic is sad -- at the beginning, brand new mother Alice is diagnosed with leukaemia and the book focuses on the course of her illness in the year following her diagnosis. The narrative is choppy -- jumping around in time between different points of view. There are some hard edges to Alice and her husband Oliver that at times made them hard to relate to. And the book is long -- and it deals at great length with the details of Alice's condition and treatment. So, at times reading this book felt like a bit of a chore. But I persevered, and I'm glad I did. Bock is very a good writer, and in snippets his writing comes together especially brilliantly. Although hard to read, there is a recognizable realness to Alice & Oliver -- the arc of such a devastating illness is full of complex emotions and Bock certainly explores them in this novel. And the epilogue knocked my socks off -- it was perfect in showing where things landed 15 years later. And whether intentionally or not, Bock touches on a couple of important social/political issues. The added stress of dealing with insurance and the cost of Alice's health care sure made me appreciate our public health care system in Canada. And Alice's struggle to find a stem cell match sends a strong message about the importance of donation. My final verdict: this is not a book for everyone, but it is a worthy read for those who can deal with the topic and narrative approach. Thank you to Netgalley and Goodreads for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
June 3, 2016
Bleuch. I tried with this book. I truly tried. I tried relating to the cancer problems. It wasn't enough. Then I listened to the author on Fresh Air and found out his wife really did die, and this is an account of what they went through as sort of a journal for their daughter. That wasn't enough either. See, when assholes gets cancer, it doesn't really make them sympathetic. It just makes them sick assholes. And oh my GOD, these people were such condescending, pretentious jerks. Alice was a narcissist of the worst degree--the kind of person who addresses herself as "Honeysuckle" when she talks to herself. The way she treated the doctors and nurses was appalling. I'm sorry, that attitude is not a cancer thing. That's an asshole thing. One thing the book gets right is the painful tedium of treatment, bills, and surgery, however I lost my empathy early on with these two. I'm not saying every Cancer Story has to be heartwarming and tearjerking like Fault in Our Stars. But at least make me root for the person. So disappointing.
April 1, 2016
This review was originally posted on www.125pages.com
I think I need to stop requesting stories set in New York City. I tend to find that the characters spend so much time acting cool, that it turns me off of them. Alice & Oliver did have that issue and without the medical crisis plotline I would have not enjoyed the read at all based on the characters. The titular Alice and Oliver are a hip, young NYC couple. They live in a loft in the Meatpacking district with their small daughter named Doe. Then on a trip to visit family, Alice falls very ill. She has cancer and the impact on her small family will carry for years.
The plot was interesting and the way Alice's diagnosis resonated throughout her life was depicted well. The writing of Charles Bock had some great moments. He crafted some deep places and weaved some very interesting sub-plots. The pacing was great in the first half and then slipped in the second; at times it was difficult to sense how much time had lapsed. The world built was solid. Encompassing just a few locations it all worked together. Any story with a life threatening illness at the center will be filled with emotions. Unfortunately some of mine were negative as I just could not gel with some of the characters. Speaking of characters, I super disliked Oliver. I know I was supposed to feel for him, and for how his wife's diagnosis affected him as well, but seriously, what an ass. Alice as well, would not have been likeable without that edge of illness to crack her veneer. Again, I just think the hipness that NYC characters tend to throw off just turns me off.
Alice & Oliver did have some great heart wrenching, gut punch moments. No story with a horrible disease, a family and the far reaching impact cannot have some amazing moments. But for me, the characters dragged down what could have been a very impactful tale. Charles Bock was able to write a lot of tender and special moments, just not enough for me to over come my distaste with the actions of the characters.
Favorite lines - And the more time he spent with Alice, the more Oliver realized he needed to up his game even further. Become that much more attentive to personal grooming. Be solicitous toward others. At least pretend to be attuned to the world and culture at large. If he wanted to keep this amazing woman looking at him like that, to somehow make this luminous creature his, he had to become kinder. It would be the greatest trick of all time.
Biggest cliché - We are so New York cool.
Have you read Alice & Oliver, or added it to your TBR?This book was most likely received free from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I think I need to stop requesting stories set in New York City. I tend to find that the characters spend so much time acting cool, that it turns me off of them. Alice & Oliver did have that issue and without the medical crisis plotline I would have not enjoyed the read at all based on the characters. The titular Alice and Oliver are a hip, young NYC couple. They live in a loft in the Meatpacking district with their small daughter named Doe. Then on a trip to visit family, Alice falls very ill. She has cancer and the impact on her small family will carry for years.
The plot was interesting and the way Alice's diagnosis resonated throughout her life was depicted well. The writing of Charles Bock had some great moments. He crafted some deep places and weaved some very interesting sub-plots. The pacing was great in the first half and then slipped in the second; at times it was difficult to sense how much time had lapsed. The world built was solid. Encompassing just a few locations it all worked together. Any story with a life threatening illness at the center will be filled with emotions. Unfortunately some of mine were negative as I just could not gel with some of the characters. Speaking of characters, I super disliked Oliver. I know I was supposed to feel for him, and for how his wife's diagnosis affected him as well, but seriously, what an ass. Alice as well, would not have been likeable without that edge of illness to crack her veneer. Again, I just think the hipness that NYC characters tend to throw off just turns me off.
Alice & Oliver did have some great heart wrenching, gut punch moments. No story with a horrible disease, a family and the far reaching impact cannot have some amazing moments. But for me, the characters dragged down what could have been a very impactful tale. Charles Bock was able to write a lot of tender and special moments, just not enough for me to over come my distaste with the actions of the characters.
Favorite lines - And the more time he spent with Alice, the more Oliver realized he needed to up his game even further. Become that much more attentive to personal grooming. Be solicitous toward others. At least pretend to be attuned to the world and culture at large. If he wanted to keep this amazing woman looking at him like that, to somehow make this luminous creature his, he had to become kinder. It would be the greatest trick of all time.
Biggest cliché - We are so New York cool.
Have you read Alice & Oliver, or added it to your TBR?This book was most likely received free from the publisher/author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
April 18, 2016
I'm not exactly sure why I decided to read this book because I knew it would be a tough one and it was . The stark reality of vicious disease is in your face from the first page - acute myeloid leukemia. Even though it was difficult to read , I decided not to give up because reading about it and feeling uncomfortable because the author had made this so real is nothing compared to enduring it. The disease is brutal and the treatment is brutal . The medical system with the mountains of paper work , the insurance hurdles, the unnecessary stop gaps along the way is a nightmare.
Alice and Oliver are put through an emotional ringer to say nothing of the physical pain and discomfort that Alice endures. What makes it even more meaningful is that the author writes from personal experience. What makes this even more powerful is that this book is probably not just a fictional depiction of what it must be like because Bock writes from a true place . He lost his wife to leukemia. The story is not just about Alice but as the title implies about Oliver too and how Alice's disease impacts him and their marriage.
While some people may find that continuity of the story is broken at times , I absolutely loved that there were these intermittent brief flashbacks to events or times in their lives before the illness. The tender touching moments after their daughter's birth was especially moving. Cases of cancer patients , some facing difficult diagnosing , others dealing with the awful effects of other types of cancer are interspersed, illustrating perhaps the prevalence of the disease or something inane about the medical system or maybe a beautiful moment for someone suffering.
This is not for the faint of heart with very detailed descriptions of symptoms, of drug side effects , of grueling treatment regiments. I was not surprised by this because I knew from the descriptions to expect it but what I was not prepared for was how Alice and Oliver's relationship was impacted by their circumstances. There are no perfect people here which makes it more real. This was not maudlin while it could have been. I recommend that you read it if you think you can handle the brutal honesty of it . I'm glad I did.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley.
Alice and Oliver are put through an emotional ringer to say nothing of the physical pain and discomfort that Alice endures. What makes it even more meaningful is that the author writes from personal experience. What makes this even more powerful is that this book is probably not just a fictional depiction of what it must be like because Bock writes from a true place . He lost his wife to leukemia. The story is not just about Alice but as the title implies about Oliver too and how Alice's disease impacts him and their marriage.
While some people may find that continuity of the story is broken at times , I absolutely loved that there were these intermittent brief flashbacks to events or times in their lives before the illness. The tender touching moments after their daughter's birth was especially moving. Cases of cancer patients , some facing difficult diagnosing , others dealing with the awful effects of other types of cancer are interspersed, illustrating perhaps the prevalence of the disease or something inane about the medical system or maybe a beautiful moment for someone suffering.
This is not for the faint of heart with very detailed descriptions of symptoms, of drug side effects , of grueling treatment regiments. I was not surprised by this because I knew from the descriptions to expect it but what I was not prepared for was how Alice and Oliver's relationship was impacted by their circumstances. There are no perfect people here which makes it more real. This was not maudlin while it could have been. I recommend that you read it if you think you can handle the brutal honesty of it . I'm glad I did.
Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley.
July 18, 2016
A beautiful, brilliant novel. Charles Bock lost his wife to leukemia after she went through two bone marrow transplants. They had a 3 year old daughter when she died. During his mourning period, Bock came upon his wife's journals and notes which she kept during her two years in the hospital. Bock was so moved by her words, that he created a couple, Alice & Oliver, with a similar situation, setting the story back in 1993. This complicates the medical aspects even more--and Bock must have done a great deal of research because a lot of what he writes rings true (a dear friend of mine has a chronic form of leukemia and I have a nursing background). This is a novel that takes some risks with POV and the passage of time. But the pace of the writing and its beauty holds you until the very last page.
February 14, 2016
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC
This is a beautiful, raw, often brutal book. The writing has a stripped-bare, clinical, dispassionate tone that packs unexpected emotional power.
My up-close experience with cancer treatment is limited to my father years ago and a close friend even more years ago. I've read a lot, fiction and non-fiction, about the end of life, the dying process, and grief, from the both the perspective of family/friends and of the individual. Those books draw me in easily through the emotional/spiritual angle. This is the first novel about the treatment process that has gotten under my skin via via a focus on the clinical details. This book took me deeper into the experience of the actual treatment process than any other piece of literature ever has.
This is not to say that the novel lacks emotion. The characters are well drawn. Alice and Oliver at first seem to be a "perfect" couple, but as Alice's treatment becomes more intense and consuming, we see their humanity: emotions, strengths, weaknesses, selfishness and selflessness.
The healthcare and health insurance systems loom large. The power and potential in medical treatment is shown against the machine that is the system. The novel is set in the early 1990s and while the health insurance system has certainly improved since then, many of the problems have, infuriatingly, remained the same.
This was a painful book to read, but so worth it.
This is a beautiful, raw, often brutal book. The writing has a stripped-bare, clinical, dispassionate tone that packs unexpected emotional power.
My up-close experience with cancer treatment is limited to my father years ago and a close friend even more years ago. I've read a lot, fiction and non-fiction, about the end of life, the dying process, and grief, from the both the perspective of family/friends and of the individual. Those books draw me in easily through the emotional/spiritual angle. This is the first novel about the treatment process that has gotten under my skin via via a focus on the clinical details. This book took me deeper into the experience of the actual treatment process than any other piece of literature ever has.
This is not to say that the novel lacks emotion. The characters are well drawn. Alice and Oliver at first seem to be a "perfect" couple, but as Alice's treatment becomes more intense and consuming, we see their humanity: emotions, strengths, weaknesses, selfishness and selflessness.
The healthcare and health insurance systems loom large. The power and potential in medical treatment is shown against the machine that is the system. The novel is set in the early 1990s and while the health insurance system has certainly improved since then, many of the problems have, infuriatingly, remained the same.
This was a painful book to read, but so worth it.
April 22, 2016
So, I have mixed feelings about this book. As the reader, we know from the beginning that although this novel is technically a work of fiction, it is based on the author's tragic experience when his wife was diagnosed with leukemia. I heard the author discussing the experience and this book on NPR and decided to check it out of the library and try it. Well......it took me a while to get through, and I skipped and skimmed sections in an effort to finish. I just found it.....overwritten, with unlikeable characters , and constant descriptions of medical procedures and jargon. I'm thinking that maybe this was a cathartic exercise for the author, writing out the medical and physical details of everything his wife experienced. I just found it to be fairly dull, and I didn't have an emotional connection to the characters. But I'm giving it three stars because it might be more relatable to a reader who has either gone through cancer themselves or is more familiar with the world of hospitals/insurance companies/disease.
May 1, 2016
Reading Alice & Oliver is not an easy thing. Having lived through similar circumstances in my family of the terminally ill and dying, I again wanted to make everything all right. Humans aren’t always equipped to do that.
Charles Bock tells a poignant, heartbreaking, at times witty, and compelling story based, as noted in the synopsis, on his own family. This fact alone provides a foundation for the incredible love shown between Alice and Oliver and for the veracity of Alice’s love and commitment to Doe. What mother isn’t afraid of leaving her child alone? Not to mention leaving her child alone when mother doesn’t know the longevity left within her.
Bock paints a beautiful picture of Alice not only as a woman willing to step into the world in all her gorgeousness with a beautiful baby girl strapped to her. And having done so, Alice steps along with the energy and vitality of a young, healthy mother with her next great adventure waiting within her reach. Alice loves every minute of the attention she draws. What young woman doesn’t?
Suddenly, everything changes. Bock then takes the reader on the love ride of their life. Alice and Oliver join hands and hearts once again, as they did the day they married, and commit to the fight of their lives–saving Alice. Alice is left to fight her illness; Oliver launches headlong into fighting the healthcare system and the adherent serpent we call insurance. Together, they fight the good intentions of family members who don’t seem to understand Alice and Oliver’s need to be together alone and with Doe.
Be forewarned to have tissues at the ready, to be ready to laugh at what seem inappropriate times, to fall in love with this little family. That’s what Charles Bock has written, a family story of love, anger, frustration, dreams, desires, blockades, unwitting hospital staff, unwitting doctors, and more. You will come away feeling as though you are close friends of Alice and Oliver’s wanting only the best for them and for Doe.
This is a not-to-be-missed book! If you don’t read it, it isn’t going to be my fault or the fault of others who have reviewed it. And it certainly won’t be Charles Bock’s fault. After all, he wrote it so you could read it.
Charles Bock tells a poignant, heartbreaking, at times witty, and compelling story based, as noted in the synopsis, on his own family. This fact alone provides a foundation for the incredible love shown between Alice and Oliver and for the veracity of Alice’s love and commitment to Doe. What mother isn’t afraid of leaving her child alone? Not to mention leaving her child alone when mother doesn’t know the longevity left within her.
Bock paints a beautiful picture of Alice not only as a woman willing to step into the world in all her gorgeousness with a beautiful baby girl strapped to her. And having done so, Alice steps along with the energy and vitality of a young, healthy mother with her next great adventure waiting within her reach. Alice loves every minute of the attention she draws. What young woman doesn’t?
Suddenly, everything changes. Bock then takes the reader on the love ride of their life. Alice and Oliver join hands and hearts once again, as they did the day they married, and commit to the fight of their lives–saving Alice. Alice is left to fight her illness; Oliver launches headlong into fighting the healthcare system and the adherent serpent we call insurance. Together, they fight the good intentions of family members who don’t seem to understand Alice and Oliver’s need to be together alone and with Doe.
Be forewarned to have tissues at the ready, to be ready to laugh at what seem inappropriate times, to fall in love with this little family. That’s what Charles Bock has written, a family story of love, anger, frustration, dreams, desires, blockades, unwitting hospital staff, unwitting doctors, and more. You will come away feeling as though you are close friends of Alice and Oliver’s wanting only the best for them and for Doe.
This is a not-to-be-missed book! If you don’t read it, it isn’t going to be my fault or the fault of others who have reviewed it. And it certainly won’t be Charles Bock’s fault. After all, he wrote it so you could read it.
June 25, 2016
Alice and Oliver by Charles Bock is the story of Alice’s diagnosis with cancer (in 1993) and her struggle to survive. Alice and her husband, Oliver have a five-month old daughter named Doe (poor kid). Alice, Oliver, and Doe are on their way to Alice’s hometown to visit her mother for Thanksgiving when Alice becomes very sick. when Alice falls ill and is taken to Dr. Glenn. Dr. Glenn discovers that Alice has an extremely low white count and immediately has her transferred by ambulance to the hospital. The book follows Alice through the hospital, doctor’s appointments, struggle to get a nanny, understanding her insurance, billing issues, filling out the endless forms at each doctor, and her various treatments (we get details on each procedure, how the medicines affect her). We get to see how this affects Alice and Oliver (their relationship). Read Alice and Oliver to find out if Alice survives.
Alice and Oliver is written like Alice opened her mouth, started talking and never shut up. We get details on everything (it is too much) from people to rooms (it is excruciating). There is one paragraph that is particularly disgusting, and I highly suggest you avoid it (trust me you do not want to know and have this visual in your head). I really, really did not want to finish this book (I started skimming after the first hundred pages). I give Alice and Olive 1 out of 5 stars. I just did not enjoy this novel. I read fiction as an escape and this book is more like non-fiction or reality. This type of novel should tug at the reader’s heartstrings, but instead I found myself disliking the main characters (especially the husband). The epilogue (takes us to 2010) was unusual. They only thing it really lets us know is if Alice survived. The author’s writing style did not help this book. It was disjointed and confusing. You were never sure who was talking (Alice, Oliver). I’m sorry but this novel was just not for me.
I received a complimentary copy of Alice and Oliver in exchange for an honest evaluation of the novel.
Alice and Oliver is written like Alice opened her mouth, started talking and never shut up. We get details on everything (it is too much) from people to rooms (it is excruciating). There is one paragraph that is particularly disgusting, and I highly suggest you avoid it (trust me you do not want to know and have this visual in your head). I really, really did not want to finish this book (I started skimming after the first hundred pages). I give Alice and Olive 1 out of 5 stars. I just did not enjoy this novel. I read fiction as an escape and this book is more like non-fiction or reality. This type of novel should tug at the reader’s heartstrings, but instead I found myself disliking the main characters (especially the husband). The epilogue (takes us to 2010) was unusual. They only thing it really lets us know is if Alice survived. The author’s writing style did not help this book. It was disjointed and confusing. You were never sure who was talking (Alice, Oliver). I’m sorry but this novel was just not for me.
I received a complimentary copy of Alice and Oliver in exchange for an honest evaluation of the novel.
October 4, 2016
400 pages and it took me seemingly FOREVER. It literally took me 4 hours to read 150 pages. It went on and on and on and I was so bored. Having said that, I couldn't drop this because it's for a challenge I'm doing. This story creates a very clear picture of cancer and cancer treatment. In the acknowledgments I figured out that the author had lost his own wife to cancer. His wife wanted to publish a memoir sharing her story and Bock took entries from her journal and tried to make the story as genuine and honest as possible. It worked, because I do feel like I now know how cancer treatment works. Apart from the honest depiction, sorry, there really wasn't anything in this for me.
None of the characters were likable. We were dropped right into this whole cancer shebang and we didn't get to see the characters outside of this situation. This didn't make them the most likable characters because of the situation they were in. I think I'd have been more invested if I actually came to care for this characters. They were unlikable, so I didn't.
The writing was so confusing. Chapters were very long and in chapters the viewpoint would jump around. Not only the viewpoint, but Alice's parts were written in first person and Oliver's parts in third person and sometimes in first person. This all happened in one chapter. Why? I don't get it. I was constantly confused because of this. Most of the time I didn't even know what was going on. I feel like I know the gist of the story but the details... Way too much description. I don't want half a page on the way the room looks.
I honestly thought I would like this story, but it turned out to be a disappointing read. Too bad, I won't linger on this story for too long. The characters won't stay with me. Let's just move on to the next book.
March 29, 2016
Based on true life events of the author's life, this novel almost reads as a memoir. Young Alice Culvert is a vivacious, talented, artsy, new young mother living in NY when she is diagnosed with cancer. Heartbreaking at times but the love that Alice and Oliver have for each other and their baby shines through. if you like reading books on medical journeys (When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi) then you'll be sure to love this book.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book and was not compensated for it.
Note: I received a free review copy of this book and was not compensated for it.
Read
February 1, 2016This book is beautifully written and raw and tender and all those things. But it is a really tough read and you need to know that going into it. Most of the book takes place in hospital rooms with graphic descriptions of chemo, bone marrow transplants etc. The characters are real and flawed and at times completely unlikeable. Just like real life!
September 28, 2015
A whole novel about cancer - with a lot of medical details - manages not to be boring or maudlin. Although I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like Alice in real life, I found the story pretty compelling. I could not put it down.
Read
June 23, 2016This originally appeared on Snotty Literati at onelitchick.com.
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This month, Snotty Literati reviews—with spoilers—Charles Bock’s novel Alice & Oliver about married New Yorkers who are young, hip, urban, and the parents of an infant. Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, and she needs a bone marrow transplant. As illness colonizes their entire lives, readers hear its impact from both of their points of view. Alice lives, knowing she’ll probably die before Doe grows up. Oliver tries to hold them all together. The medical community rallies. Cancer encroaches. Charles Bock, sadly, writes from personal experience. The book is dedicated to Diana Joy Colbert, his first wife who was diagnosed in 2009 and died in 2011. Bock is now married to Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams. He lives in New York with his wife and his daughter from his first marriage.
Jennifer: Well, this book was—this will sound nuts—a relief after our last book. This was heavily literary: all about character, luminous prose. I will say it took me a long time to read it. I enjoyed it all, but it was a slooooow read.
Lara: You can say that again. I took it with me on a four-day vacation, expecting to knock it out in two … and it was eating the big salad. You know, the kind you get that you eat and eat and it never looks or feels like you are making any progress. That’s a Seinfeld shout out, by the way.
Jennifer: Nice way to add some levity. Did you like it, though?
Lara: I liked it. But I didn’t love it. Clearly, Bock can write. And I think he actually wrote this book as a kind of love letter to his wife, which is sweet. But Oliver, who started out sweet and loving, ended up being a total asshole. And, Alice, who—SPOILER ALERT—beats her illness and chooses to stay with him….pissed me off. She totally had the opportunity and complete justification to make a clean break…and she didn’t. In the end, I was just disappointed. These aren’t characters who will stay with me.
Jennifer: Well, hmmm. I’m going to disagree and explain. I don’t think he was a total asshole. I want to say that he was weak, but it wasn’t that either. I’ll have to do the personal-thing here. As many people know, I’m in remission after Stage Two Breast Cancer. I think Bock got so much of this illness right that what may seem like ass-holery here is just honesty. I didn’t really like Alice herself all that much either. But I found these two to be real. Very real characters. Oliver was strong in many of the ways in which he cares for her. He goes to prostitutes when she’s ill, and that made me boil. In that, he was weak and cruel. Generally, I would support his actions of coming clean with his wife—but not when she was about to die (I didn’t think she’d live). I guess I think it would be better to not tell her. When I told my husband about it—because I was so upset—he was, like, After only one year? What a waste of money!
Also, I’m glad they stayed together! Of course they stayed together! The book’s finale clearly reveals their love for one another, as well as the forever-altered state of their sexuality: “Doe knew her parents loved her and she knew they had once been in love, but she often wondered about whether they loved each other. Now she watched them staring at one another with a clarity and intimacy that she recognized as laden with tenderness, and history, and more than that, too.” What a great quote about a successful marriage.
And that’s another thing I liked about this book. It showed how illness doesn’t cancel out human sexuality.
Lara: It was very cruel for him to seek out prostitutes. I am not even sure it was after a year. I get the whole bad-choices-don’t-make-him-a-bad-person thing. But his wife was supposedly this person with whom he was so in love and he wasn’t even sure would live? He can’t just watch some porn for a year? Not that there’s ever a good time to cheat on your spouse—but I am thinking when she or he is on a death bed, awaiting news of a bone marrow donor, it’s not the time. He did take on a lot, but he had immense help with Alice’s mother and some of Alice’s friends. There’s so many stories of men going out on their marriages. Is it really that hard to stay faithful?
I am with you that it was a realistic portrait of a marriage, disease, and the healthcare system. Oliver’s affairs—it wasn’t just one prostitute—were a cheap opt-out for his character. And it didn’t seem like something he would have done. Honestly—and this is going to sound super contradictory—it would have been more realistic and a better story if he had screwed a sister or best friend. Certainly more devastating. I am sounding all over the board here. Come at me, bro! I am ready.
Jennifer: Well, he deliberately chose anonymity so that there was no emotional involvement. In this way, he felt as if he were being faithful to her. Which is absurd, but people always think this shit. Ultimately, he’s saying that sex and love are totally two different things—so he’s somehow okay. The guilt comes for him anyway. Also, he stops cheating at a pivotal moment. One of the anonymous prostitutes has a moment in which she reveals her own depths; Oliver talks of his wife’s cancer and the prostitute says that Alice is undergoing suffering of biblical proportions—or something like that. Once she’s said something truly compassionate, truly human, he can’t cope—and he leaves. I’m not saying this is good, but it makes sense: Oliver dehumanized his whores. If they were human, he was most definitely cheating.
We might note that Alice, too, has a less-indecent infidelity, a little flirtation that gets out of hand. I felt like this was imposed on the story a bit—to maybe justify Oliver or “even them out.” I didn’t think it did anything for the novel.
Lara: Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that Alice’s situation with the roving hospital guitar dude, who she clearly told she was not interested in but who obviously flattered her, is the same thing as Oliver seeing MULTIPLE prostitutes, even after he told her he would stop? I am going to call bullshit on that.
Jennifer: No, not the same thing. I want to emphasize the realness of these characters, though. That marriage was pretty real. I like this line:
“Please,” she told Oliver. “We’re getting to a place where you can be right or we can be married. And I need so badly to be married to you.”
Frankly, this resonated with me. I’m sure—like absolutely, totally sure—I’ve said it to my husband or thought it to myself.
Lara: I loved that line too. It’s brilliant. I actually loved Oliver. In the beginning…
Jennifer: Elsewhere, when they’re trying to keep their lives together, there is this sentence fragment about finding babysitters for their child:
“Relying on one or two distressingly attractive, semi-competent young women fresh out of art school . . .”
I love the distressingly attractive part. I’m so very sure, also, that my husband has found young women “distressingly attractive.” I’m sorry for seeing this novel so thoroughly through my own cancerous lens. This is a cancer story.
But I want to riff on that for a bit. I’ve read quite a few cancer stories by now (everyone writes a book), and it’s become increasingly obvious that the quality of the writing, the strength of voice and rigor of prose, the beauty of verbiage is the distinction: what distinguishes the good ones from the bad. It isn’t the harrowing plot line. It’s the writing.
And it’s something else: it’s the “scope of the imagination,” to quote Anne in Anne of Green Gables. It’s the writer taking the story beyond cancer, to something else—something that speaks to those not suffering from cancer.
I liked a lot about the marriage here, though you didn’t. But, but, but . . . This is a New York Novel, and I love me a New York Novel! I love when a book captures the pulse and character of New York. I’ve already brought in my own cancer, and now I’m going to bring in my own—nameless—novel (not the collection, folks). I wanted to do that New York thing with my book: really create an authenticity. Bock did that superbly.
Lara: I would agree with you on those points. I do think there was a bit too much on the details of cancer, the names of the medicines and treatments, fighting with hospital billing, and the insurance company; while it added to the realness, it also bogged the story down. I hope that doesn’t sound terrible. I don’t have cancer. My son had a swallowing condition at birth that we dealt with for five years, so I totally get the stress of having what feels like a second and third job as a Case Manager/Caregiver/Parent/Spouse. But something about it was maybe too much.
Jennifer: I’m not sure. I was into it. I admit that it could be because of my own cancer. I did like this passage a lot (it’s Alice’s thoughts):
“This is part of my plan. Whenever somebody is going to do something for me, take me somewhere, give me anything, I am going to make a note. A series of short, sweet anchors. This is how I will survive.” Hence, the details.
Lara: Again, I did like it. And parts I loved! I loved their early marriage, and the beginning of the diagnosis. They were sweet and fighting a united fight. After a rough night in the hospital, Bock writes:
“Her hand was clutching his. She welled up, swallowed and said, ‘Tu esta mi favorito.’
‘Tu esta mi favorito,’ he said.
And in this way, they kept going, following the directions Alice had written in her to-do notebook, muddling through the lobby, their hands together on that stroller, the sick woman in the blue wig, and her dapper stubble-headed husband, and their baby, too, a small, quiet family, shrinking, moving forward.”
Isn’t that beautiful? I really was rooting for them.
Jennifer: Yes. And the entirety of pages 234-235 with its New Yorkisms, its East Village collisions, CBGB-Limelight-Patti Smith-Yaffa-all night Polish diner ministrations bedazzled me. I loved how a chic life could be turned on its head, the brutality of it—like some kind of plucked peacock. Which would make a great title of a story: A Plucked Peacock. Dibbs. All Rights Reserved. Copyrighted. Whatever.
Lara: I also loved the reality that I am sure exists when you are in treatment and need the regularity of life to continue, to ground you. I loved the scene about Crab Fest—a virtually impossible event to get into. Alice gets reservations and is hell-bent on attending, even though it’s scheduled at a critical point in her treatment.
“Howard Eisentstatt, MD, let out an airless gasp. ‘The Black Tide?’ he sputtered. ‘You have reservations?’ An amazed laugh; he shook his head, rubbed his chin. ‘Mrs. Culvert, you’re obviously a resourceful woman. But this time it���s my turn to be as clear as possible. Leukemia and induction have severely compromised your immune system. By severely, I mean to say: your immune system is as close to non-existent as possible. I’m telling you I’d rather you not go out in public at all. If and when you go out, it must be in a controlled environment. This means wearing the mask. The gloves. Antibacterial wash in your purse. No way you are going to a crab boil.”
Jennifer: Yes! The authenticity of the moment. We cling to the lives we create for ourselves, right? It makes us figure out what really matters. I’m not sure these two characters really do that. I’m not sure Alice’s Buddhist tendencies ever enlighten her in any real way, and I’m not sure they emerge as better people or better parents. Rather, it is a true picture of the bad, bad times. And I think Bock did what you mentioned earlier: he wrote a love letter to his deceased wife.
Lara: Mmmhmm. He also created several reactions for me—even ones I didn’t like—and that’s the sign of a good writer, to elicit feeling. Even if it’s feelings we don’t necessarily enjoy.
Next Up!
If cancer wasn’t enough, we are going to tackle marriage, family, and mental illness with Adam Haslett’s newest, Imagine Me Gone.
See you next month, Snotties!
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This month, Snotty Literati reviews—with spoilers—Charles Bock’s novel Alice & Oliver about married New Yorkers who are young, hip, urban, and the parents of an infant. Alice is diagnosed with leukemia, and she needs a bone marrow transplant. As illness colonizes their entire lives, readers hear its impact from both of their points of view. Alice lives, knowing she’ll probably die before Doe grows up. Oliver tries to hold them all together. The medical community rallies. Cancer encroaches. Charles Bock, sadly, writes from personal experience. The book is dedicated to Diana Joy Colbert, his first wife who was diagnosed in 2009 and died in 2011. Bock is now married to Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams. He lives in New York with his wife and his daughter from his first marriage.
Jennifer: Well, this book was—this will sound nuts—a relief after our last book. This was heavily literary: all about character, luminous prose. I will say it took me a long time to read it. I enjoyed it all, but it was a slooooow read.
Lara: You can say that again. I took it with me on a four-day vacation, expecting to knock it out in two … and it was eating the big salad. You know, the kind you get that you eat and eat and it never looks or feels like you are making any progress. That’s a Seinfeld shout out, by the way.
Jennifer: Nice way to add some levity. Did you like it, though?
Lara: I liked it. But I didn’t love it. Clearly, Bock can write. And I think he actually wrote this book as a kind of love letter to his wife, which is sweet. But Oliver, who started out sweet and loving, ended up being a total asshole. And, Alice, who—SPOILER ALERT—beats her illness and chooses to stay with him….pissed me off. She totally had the opportunity and complete justification to make a clean break…and she didn’t. In the end, I was just disappointed. These aren’t characters who will stay with me.
Jennifer: Well, hmmm. I’m going to disagree and explain. I don’t think he was a total asshole. I want to say that he was weak, but it wasn’t that either. I’ll have to do the personal-thing here. As many people know, I’m in remission after Stage Two Breast Cancer. I think Bock got so much of this illness right that what may seem like ass-holery here is just honesty. I didn’t really like Alice herself all that much either. But I found these two to be real. Very real characters. Oliver was strong in many of the ways in which he cares for her. He goes to prostitutes when she’s ill, and that made me boil. In that, he was weak and cruel. Generally, I would support his actions of coming clean with his wife—but not when she was about to die (I didn’t think she’d live). I guess I think it would be better to not tell her. When I told my husband about it—because I was so upset—he was, like, After only one year? What a waste of money!
Also, I’m glad they stayed together! Of course they stayed together! The book’s finale clearly reveals their love for one another, as well as the forever-altered state of their sexuality: “Doe knew her parents loved her and she knew they had once been in love, but she often wondered about whether they loved each other. Now she watched them staring at one another with a clarity and intimacy that she recognized as laden with tenderness, and history, and more than that, too.” What a great quote about a successful marriage.
And that’s another thing I liked about this book. It showed how illness doesn’t cancel out human sexuality.
Lara: It was very cruel for him to seek out prostitutes. I am not even sure it was after a year. I get the whole bad-choices-don’t-make-him-a-bad-person thing. But his wife was supposedly this person with whom he was so in love and he wasn’t even sure would live? He can’t just watch some porn for a year? Not that there’s ever a good time to cheat on your spouse—but I am thinking when she or he is on a death bed, awaiting news of a bone marrow donor, it’s not the time. He did take on a lot, but he had immense help with Alice’s mother and some of Alice’s friends. There’s so many stories of men going out on their marriages. Is it really that hard to stay faithful?
I am with you that it was a realistic portrait of a marriage, disease, and the healthcare system. Oliver’s affairs—it wasn’t just one prostitute—were a cheap opt-out for his character. And it didn’t seem like something he would have done. Honestly—and this is going to sound super contradictory—it would have been more realistic and a better story if he had screwed a sister or best friend. Certainly more devastating. I am sounding all over the board here. Come at me, bro! I am ready.
Jennifer: Well, he deliberately chose anonymity so that there was no emotional involvement. In this way, he felt as if he were being faithful to her. Which is absurd, but people always think this shit. Ultimately, he’s saying that sex and love are totally two different things—so he’s somehow okay. The guilt comes for him anyway. Also, he stops cheating at a pivotal moment. One of the anonymous prostitutes has a moment in which she reveals her own depths; Oliver talks of his wife’s cancer and the prostitute says that Alice is undergoing suffering of biblical proportions—or something like that. Once she’s said something truly compassionate, truly human, he can’t cope—and he leaves. I’m not saying this is good, but it makes sense: Oliver dehumanized his whores. If they were human, he was most definitely cheating.
We might note that Alice, too, has a less-indecent infidelity, a little flirtation that gets out of hand. I felt like this was imposed on the story a bit—to maybe justify Oliver or “even them out.” I didn’t think it did anything for the novel.
Lara: Wait a minute. Are you trying to tell me that Alice’s situation with the roving hospital guitar dude, who she clearly told she was not interested in but who obviously flattered her, is the same thing as Oliver seeing MULTIPLE prostitutes, even after he told her he would stop? I am going to call bullshit on that.
Jennifer: No, not the same thing. I want to emphasize the realness of these characters, though. That marriage was pretty real. I like this line:
“Please,” she told Oliver. “We’re getting to a place where you can be right or we can be married. And I need so badly to be married to you.”
Frankly, this resonated with me. I’m sure—like absolutely, totally sure—I’ve said it to my husband or thought it to myself.
Lara: I loved that line too. It’s brilliant. I actually loved Oliver. In the beginning…
Jennifer: Elsewhere, when they’re trying to keep their lives together, there is this sentence fragment about finding babysitters for their child:
“Relying on one or two distressingly attractive, semi-competent young women fresh out of art school . . .”
I love the distressingly attractive part. I’m so very sure, also, that my husband has found young women “distressingly attractive.” I’m sorry for seeing this novel so thoroughly through my own cancerous lens. This is a cancer story.
But I want to riff on that for a bit. I’ve read quite a few cancer stories by now (everyone writes a book), and it’s become increasingly obvious that the quality of the writing, the strength of voice and rigor of prose, the beauty of verbiage is the distinction: what distinguishes the good ones from the bad. It isn’t the harrowing plot line. It’s the writing.
And it’s something else: it’s the “scope of the imagination,” to quote Anne in Anne of Green Gables. It’s the writer taking the story beyond cancer, to something else—something that speaks to those not suffering from cancer.
I liked a lot about the marriage here, though you didn’t. But, but, but . . . This is a New York Novel, and I love me a New York Novel! I love when a book captures the pulse and character of New York. I’ve already brought in my own cancer, and now I’m going to bring in my own—nameless—novel (not the collection, folks). I wanted to do that New York thing with my book: really create an authenticity. Bock did that superbly.
Lara: I would agree with you on those points. I do think there was a bit too much on the details of cancer, the names of the medicines and treatments, fighting with hospital billing, and the insurance company; while it added to the realness, it also bogged the story down. I hope that doesn’t sound terrible. I don’t have cancer. My son had a swallowing condition at birth that we dealt with for five years, so I totally get the stress of having what feels like a second and third job as a Case Manager/Caregiver/Parent/Spouse. But something about it was maybe too much.
Jennifer: I’m not sure. I was into it. I admit that it could be because of my own cancer. I did like this passage a lot (it’s Alice’s thoughts):
“This is part of my plan. Whenever somebody is going to do something for me, take me somewhere, give me anything, I am going to make a note. A series of short, sweet anchors. This is how I will survive.” Hence, the details.
Lara: Again, I did like it. And parts I loved! I loved their early marriage, and the beginning of the diagnosis. They were sweet and fighting a united fight. After a rough night in the hospital, Bock writes:
“Her hand was clutching his. She welled up, swallowed and said, ‘Tu esta mi favorito.’
‘Tu esta mi favorito,’ he said.
And in this way, they kept going, following the directions Alice had written in her to-do notebook, muddling through the lobby, their hands together on that stroller, the sick woman in the blue wig, and her dapper stubble-headed husband, and their baby, too, a small, quiet family, shrinking, moving forward.”
Isn’t that beautiful? I really was rooting for them.
Jennifer: Yes. And the entirety of pages 234-235 with its New Yorkisms, its East Village collisions, CBGB-Limelight-Patti Smith-Yaffa-all night Polish diner ministrations bedazzled me. I loved how a chic life could be turned on its head, the brutality of it—like some kind of plucked peacock. Which would make a great title of a story: A Plucked Peacock. Dibbs. All Rights Reserved. Copyrighted. Whatever.
Lara: I also loved the reality that I am sure exists when you are in treatment and need the regularity of life to continue, to ground you. I loved the scene about Crab Fest—a virtually impossible event to get into. Alice gets reservations and is hell-bent on attending, even though it’s scheduled at a critical point in her treatment.
“Howard Eisentstatt, MD, let out an airless gasp. ‘The Black Tide?’ he sputtered. ‘You have reservations?’ An amazed laugh; he shook his head, rubbed his chin. ‘Mrs. Culvert, you’re obviously a resourceful woman. But this time it���s my turn to be as clear as possible. Leukemia and induction have severely compromised your immune system. By severely, I mean to say: your immune system is as close to non-existent as possible. I’m telling you I’d rather you not go out in public at all. If and when you go out, it must be in a controlled environment. This means wearing the mask. The gloves. Antibacterial wash in your purse. No way you are going to a crab boil.”
Jennifer: Yes! The authenticity of the moment. We cling to the lives we create for ourselves, right? It makes us figure out what really matters. I’m not sure these two characters really do that. I’m not sure Alice’s Buddhist tendencies ever enlighten her in any real way, and I’m not sure they emerge as better people or better parents. Rather, it is a true picture of the bad, bad times. And I think Bock did what you mentioned earlier: he wrote a love letter to his deceased wife.
Lara: Mmmhmm. He also created several reactions for me—even ones I didn’t like—and that’s the sign of a good writer, to elicit feeling. Even if it’s feelings we don’t necessarily enjoy.
Next Up!
If cancer wasn’t enough, we are going to tackle marriage, family, and mental illness with Adam Haslett’s newest, Imagine Me Gone.
See you next month, Snotties!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2023
At times it’s a bit hard to follow, with the switches in timelines, and can be a bit jarring… but with that said, it is soulful, and feels deeply real. The characters and flawed and often deeply unlikeable, but real people often are, especially when exposed to the brutal realities that our individualistic, consumerist society expects people to conform to when they are expected to maintain a full time schedule while battling unfathomable illness and somehow also run a family because “we can’t afford” to have a society that has any type of social welfare state. I hate nearly everything about how true this rings, because I’m also trapped in this shitty medicalized system, immortalized as one of the nurses, stretched to their limit, trying to pay their own bills working as a cog in a machine for a corporate healthcare entity.
Fuck capitalism, by the way. Harrowing book. Harrowing book. Devastating look at the experience of cancer.
Fuck capitalism, by the way. Harrowing book. Harrowing book. Devastating look at the experience of cancer.
December 19, 2017
Having lost a very close friend to cancer just after she turned 54, I could really identify with this book. I've read some of the reviews and some have commented about what I would call discontinuity in the text. But let me assure anyone who hasn't experienced losing someone close to cancer, that's how your life becomes in these circumstances. Consider yourself blessed if you haven't endured or witnessed this kind of experience.
This book was one of the most memorable ones I've ever read, and I read many books a year.
This book was one of the most memorable ones I've ever read, and I read many books a year.
July 7, 2024
This book broke my heart in so many ways. The writing is absolutely splendid, as is the story, in its terrifying truth. Why it hit so hard for me is because my dear cousin, someone like a sister to me, had the chronic form of this leukemia. She did not survive. I’m grateful to how Mr. Bock drew from his former wife’s journals, now I have better insight to what my cousin experienced. She is missed, every day. Great read!
February 27, 2025
This book resonated with me because I had read his second wife’s book about her marriage and having his child. I wanted to know his history. He writes so poignantly about his first wife horrors with cancer. I feel for him with every description.
January 15, 2019
This was a real struggle and a great disappointment. I could not get into the writing style because it was quite difficult to follow the storyline. The author seemed to jump from character to character without much Segway. Though I would feel for Alice and maybe for Oliver but both became quite unlikeable. Skimmed to complete and was glad to put it aside!
September 23, 2022
i hated this book! so much unnecessary fatphobia! alice was so annoying! oliver was annoying!
Read
June 13, 2017I got this book because I heard the author on Fresh Air, and learned that the book is based on his experiences with his own wife's cancer, when they were both living in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. Since I've been thinking of writing something that involves young New Yorkers and a character with serious illness, I figured I had to give it a read.
Am a little more than halfway through now, and finding it rough going. It's not especially fast paced, and the language is sometimes appealingly weird, but more often just odd or clunky. Random sampling: "He took her in, seeming surprised by her wit. Eyes with an intense depth calculated, and their math added up to losing a fight against his oncoming smile." What?
There are a lot of little What? moments in Alice & Oliver, moments when you don't know who is speaking or what is meant. I am also having a hard time getting into the story. After 240 pages focusing exclusively on these characters, I don't know them very well. Oliver is a computer guy. Alice is a fashion woman. She's a hippie, in a Kabbalah-era Madonna kind of way. They love each other, I guess, but they have problems (gasp!). I wonder why Charles Bock chose to write this book as fiction. I can't know how much he changed, of course, but he doesn't seem to have changed enough to make the novel work as a dramatic story. (The only thing I'm reading for, plot-wise, is whether Alice gets better or dies at the end.) There are these dramatic-ish interludes, but they come to nought: Alice has a flirtation with a guy in the hospital. Oliver tries to go see a prostitute, but at the last minute he can't go through with it. (Because THEY LOVE EACH OTHER.) There's a lot of blow-by-blow about treatments and the frustration of dealing with hospital billing, and that feels very true-to-life, but I don't think Bock has solved the problem of how to make these experiences, which are so very irritating in everyday life, into scintillating stuff on the page. Reading it is like dealing with actual hospital billers, only less aggravating because it's not real, it's not your money.
The most moving parts to me so far are the passages dealing with the young couple's infant daughter, who I fear is going to be left motherless by the end of the story. Alice's wishes to be there for her daughter, and her inability to do so, are sad and touching. At this moment, they're pretty much what's pulling me along, because considering how intense the subject matter of the book is, the story as a whole isn't having a lot of emotional resonance. I really wonder if the book would have been more heavy-hitting if Bock had written it as a memoir—a totally candid take on what it's like to have a young wife die of cancer, maybe—as it is, it feels as if no one's story is completely getting told: not Alice's, not Oliver's, not Bock's. It's interesting to read about the 'improper' feelings that occur between the couple, like Oliver resenting all the work he has to do, or Alice feeling flirty with another man, but these themes aren't pushed nearly far enough to be shocking or even have an appealing 'tell-all' quality. "Muffled" is a word that comes to mind for the storytelling; hard-to-navigate sentences like the one above are symptomatic, but the problem goes deeper than that. There's this disjointed, vignette-y quality to the book's structure, and the characters feel like compilations of stock attributes. Some of the vignettes are good, and there are some fine kickers to various sections, but the book doesn't have a lot of momentum, in spite of its supposedly laser focus on the course of Alice's illness.
I hate to leave a book unfinished, but I am writing this review now because I'm honestly not sure if I'll get through the rest of Alice & Oliver.
Update: COULD NOT FINISH!
Am a little more than halfway through now, and finding it rough going. It's not especially fast paced, and the language is sometimes appealingly weird, but more often just odd or clunky. Random sampling: "He took her in, seeming surprised by her wit. Eyes with an intense depth calculated, and their math added up to losing a fight against his oncoming smile." What?
There are a lot of little What? moments in Alice & Oliver, moments when you don't know who is speaking or what is meant. I am also having a hard time getting into the story. After 240 pages focusing exclusively on these characters, I don't know them very well. Oliver is a computer guy. Alice is a fashion woman. She's a hippie, in a Kabbalah-era Madonna kind of way. They love each other, I guess, but they have problems (gasp!). I wonder why Charles Bock chose to write this book as fiction. I can't know how much he changed, of course, but he doesn't seem to have changed enough to make the novel work as a dramatic story. (The only thing I'm reading for, plot-wise, is whether Alice gets better or dies at the end.) There are these dramatic-ish interludes, but they come to nought: Alice has a flirtation with a guy in the hospital. Oliver tries to go see a prostitute, but at the last minute he can't go through with it. (Because THEY LOVE EACH OTHER.) There's a lot of blow-by-blow about treatments and the frustration of dealing with hospital billing, and that feels very true-to-life, but I don't think Bock has solved the problem of how to make these experiences, which are so very irritating in everyday life, into scintillating stuff on the page. Reading it is like dealing with actual hospital billers, only less aggravating because it's not real, it's not your money.
The most moving parts to me so far are the passages dealing with the young couple's infant daughter, who I fear is going to be left motherless by the end of the story. Alice's wishes to be there for her daughter, and her inability to do so, are sad and touching. At this moment, they're pretty much what's pulling me along, because considering how intense the subject matter of the book is, the story as a whole isn't having a lot of emotional resonance. I really wonder if the book would have been more heavy-hitting if Bock had written it as a memoir—a totally candid take on what it's like to have a young wife die of cancer, maybe—as it is, it feels as if no one's story is completely getting told: not Alice's, not Oliver's, not Bock's. It's interesting to read about the 'improper' feelings that occur between the couple, like Oliver resenting all the work he has to do, or Alice feeling flirty with another man, but these themes aren't pushed nearly far enough to be shocking or even have an appealing 'tell-all' quality. "Muffled" is a word that comes to mind for the storytelling; hard-to-navigate sentences like the one above are symptomatic, but the problem goes deeper than that. There's this disjointed, vignette-y quality to the book's structure, and the characters feel like compilations of stock attributes. Some of the vignettes are good, and there are some fine kickers to various sections, but the book doesn't have a lot of momentum, in spite of its supposedly laser focus on the course of Alice's illness.
I hate to leave a book unfinished, but I am writing this review now because I'm honestly not sure if I'll get through the rest of Alice & Oliver.
Update: COULD NOT FINISH!
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