Alice's adventures

     This post may lack subtlety but its message is simple: read this book!
     I was utterly gripped by Ask Alice from first page to last, and at no point did I or the book flag. I am sorry that I have finished it and that this excellent entertainment is at an end, but I shall read more by D.J. Taylor and have no hestitation in labelling his latest novel "not to be missed".
     The story begins in Kansas in 1904 and spans thirty or so years, moving to Edwardian London, a crumbling country house, the provincial theatre and the drawing rooms of the highest society. There are echoes of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh, Anthony Powell and even E.F. Benson, but D. J. Taylor's remarkable achievement is how gloriously detailed and richly imagined is the world he has realised here. Almost like looking at a Frith painting, the reader becomes absorbed in the multi-stranded narrative, and follows the eponymous Alice from her humble American origins to her position of wealth and influence in the 20s and 30s. Alongside her rise is that of the young Ralph Bentley and his eccentric 'Uncle' Alfred who discovers a new colour and invents a dye which makes his name and his fortune, and achieves for them both an entree to a previously closed social milieu.
     Mixing fictitious characters with real ones - for instance, the scenes of courtroom drama towards the end of the book are recounted beautifully in his 'diary' by the delicately waspish Beverley Nichols - makes for powerful verisimilitude, and the whole thing is so compelling that it cannot be put down. If I have a quibble at all it's that the ending is rather more abrupt and convenient than one might like, but my notes on the book as a whole include the words "captivating" and "quite delicious", and so I forgive that, and there's really nothing more to be said than "read it"!

Comments

[Simon S]

I absolutely 110% want to read this book and am going to have to get my mitts on it some how. The fact that you have mentioned comparisons to Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and E.F. Benson makes its appeal only the bigger, hmmm I might have to accidentally fall into Waterstones today.

[MOG]

Love the sound of this one, thanks for the recommendation. Happy Easter!

[adele geras]

OOH! Can't wait for this....it will have to go on the next order. Or...I have a Waterstone's token to spend. Joy is unconfined. I love having books like this recommended, so thanks, Cornflower.

[Margaret Powling]

You are wickedn, nay thrice-wicked, as Frankie Howerd would've said, in mentioning such a delicious book which I now want to read! Even the cover is sufficient to make me want it!

By the way, the fourth in the series of horticultural crime novels by Anthony Eglin is now available (from America.) I very much like these although they are a bit gung-ho-ish, Boys' Own Paper in the 21st century sort of thing! But they are fun, so thought I'd mention them to you.

We have been to the French Market on Torquay Sea Front this morning - great fun. We don't normally stray far from our own doorstep on a Bank Holiday (esp. as we live in a seaside resort, filled with the world and his many wives) but it was such a lovely morning, and we came home with olives, cheese, tartes, and some lovely dried ginger.

[Danielle]

Ooh, you've sold me! I read one of his earlier novels and was impressed!

[Margaret Powling]

Just a PS.

Sherlock Powling here! I've had a look at D J Taylor's website and there's even a blog, and he says that he's now half way through a novel called Derby Day, about Victorian horse-racing and he's also written what he calls a Graham Greenish entertainment (his description) set in 1930s London called At the Chime of a City Clock and this is to be published by Constable & Robinson next year under the pseudonym 'Felix Benjamin'.

[Tara]

I'm trying to figure out if this is the same as Bright Young People published here in January - thoughts? Otherwise this isn't showing up on Amazon US yet. Nuts!

[Cornflower]

Tara, Bright Young People is non-fiction so not this one under another name, but try The Book Depository (free international delivery) if you want it soon!

[Zoe]

Thanks for this - just reserved it at the library.