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Alice
Few, if anyone, could have had a life like Alice Gilmore. It was almost unbelievable yet carried on under the cover of a respectable middle-class existence.
You might strongly disapprove of what she did, but Alice was determined, She overcame insurmountable obstacles to keep the love she longed for.
Her single-minded fight to live out her love makes a gripping, riveting story that one eminent literary person called ‘staggeringly readable’. It is shocking. Her methods will upset some, but are you with her or against her? Your decision.
This is no misery memoir. It’s a story told with joy, wit and fervour – the astonishing story of the overwhelming love Alice Gilmour was determined to live out.
You might strongly disapprove of what she did, but Alice was determined, She overcame insurmountable obstacles to keep the love she longed for.
Her single-minded fight to live out her love makes a gripping, riveting story that one eminent literary person called ‘staggeringly readable’. It is shocking. Her methods will upset some, but are you with her or against her? Your decision.
This is no misery memoir. It’s a story told with joy, wit and fervour – the astonishing story of the overwhelming love Alice Gilmour was determined to live out.
- GenresMemoir
165 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 12, 2019
181 people want to read
About the author
Alice Gilmore
4 books123 followersIf you want to know about my life and background read this book. I can scarcely add to what I have written about myself in there. I earnestly hope that the rest of my life is too uneventful to even consider writing anything else, I am no novelist. The life I have described was full enough and rich enough for me. God knows what I would come out with if I had to invent. If you find you need a good chef I shall consider anything not too energetic – which rules out most jobs in the kitchen.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 21, 2021
Alice, a Memoir, is a book unlike any that I have ever read. It is presented as a true story, a memoir from Alice Gilmore. I believe that this is her first book. An “About The Author” blurb that I have read says that everything that there is to know about her is in the book. So, I am going to believe that this is truth and not fiction.
One thing which is clear from the beginning is that the author is British. The locations referenced are in England. You can see the British spellings of words. Also, in the book, people go to university. They don’t go to a university or the university. In America, we say that people go to college, but we don’t usually say that people go to university. Finally, when the author includes a famous saying of Groucho Marx, she spells his last name as Marks. Not a mistake an American is likely to make.
The story is about a woman named Alice starting at a time when she was in her early twenties. In the first chapter, she notes that it is a love story. I won’t reveal some details from the beginning of the book. I will simply say that she had graduated from university (the English way of saying that) and was living with an older man. One day, while they were watching a movie on television, she seduced him. After a very explicit description of this pivotal event in both their lives, she goes back a year to explain how she got to this point. Although there are physical relationships happening in the remaining chapters, the descriptions are more conventional. In no way should the book be considered erotica.
After this introduction, she notes the difficulty in maintaining the relationship and the lengths to which she goes to do so. Eventually, they relocate to America. They have a family, although not in the usual way. She resolves to explain someday the circumstances to her children but finds that it is necessary a decade or so earlier than she had planned. According to the Afterword, the book was published approximately ten years after it was written to help conceal the true identities of the people in the book until a time when her children would be old enough to handle the revelation, if it happened.
In the very beginning of the book, Alice says that her relationship could tritely be called the exception that proves the rule. She doesn’t want the rule to be changed, only that her exception be allowed. At this point, the reader doesn’t know what rule is being referenced or what her exception is. By the end of the first chapter, the reader will know both. Her insistence that her behavior not be emulated by others is proper according to society. However, there are definitely some people who believe that the rule should be discarded.
Alice, a Memoir, is exceedingly well written. True or not, the book is worth reading. I recommend it.
P.S.
I do have another theory regarding the author and the reason for writing the book. It comes from seeing a blurb for a 2019 book titled “my write to heal” by Alice Gilmore. I have not yet read this book, but its existence gives a different sense about the author.
One thing which is clear from the beginning is that the author is British. The locations referenced are in England. You can see the British spellings of words. Also, in the book, people go to university. They don’t go to a university or the university. In America, we say that people go to college, but we don’t usually say that people go to university. Finally, when the author includes a famous saying of Groucho Marx, she spells his last name as Marks. Not a mistake an American is likely to make.
The story is about a woman named Alice starting at a time when she was in her early twenties. In the first chapter, she notes that it is a love story. I won’t reveal some details from the beginning of the book. I will simply say that she had graduated from university (the English way of saying that) and was living with an older man. One day, while they were watching a movie on television, she seduced him. After a very explicit description of this pivotal event in both their lives, she goes back a year to explain how she got to this point. Although there are physical relationships happening in the remaining chapters, the descriptions are more conventional. In no way should the book be considered erotica.
After this introduction, she notes the difficulty in maintaining the relationship and the lengths to which she goes to do so. Eventually, they relocate to America. They have a family, although not in the usual way. She resolves to explain someday the circumstances to her children but finds that it is necessary a decade or so earlier than she had planned. According to the Afterword, the book was published approximately ten years after it was written to help conceal the true identities of the people in the book until a time when her children would be old enough to handle the revelation, if it happened.
In the very beginning of the book, Alice says that her relationship could tritely be called the exception that proves the rule. She doesn’t want the rule to be changed, only that her exception be allowed. At this point, the reader doesn’t know what rule is being referenced or what her exception is. By the end of the first chapter, the reader will know both. Her insistence that her behavior not be emulated by others is proper according to society. However, there are definitely some people who believe that the rule should be discarded.
Alice, a Memoir, is exceedingly well written. True or not, the book is worth reading. I recommend it.
P.S.
I do have another theory regarding the author and the reason for writing the book. It comes from seeing a blurb for a 2019 book titled “my write to heal” by Alice Gilmore. I have not yet read this book, but its existence gives a different sense about the author.
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April 26, 2021Thought provoking but too much for reality. To read about incest in a nonfiction formate that is laid out in a supportive manner is my taboo limit.
March 22, 2022
WTF, like this was a comedy or what?
December 4, 2019
Extraordinary book, wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Was it a true story or a piece of fantasy? It was certainly believable. Funny, well written, and gripping but I found myself morally on the fence.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews