Review: Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington
Reviewed by Colleen Turner
Alice Bliss is in many ways a typical fifteen year old: she argues with her mother, tries hard to take care of her little, precocious sister and is a daddy’s girl of the highest caliber. She has spent her life following her father around, learning how to garden, building things in his workshop and going with him on roofing jobs. He has also taught her to be meticulous, gracious and to never let her fears get the best of her. She loves her father beyond all others and has always tried hard to make him proud.
When Matt Bliss decides to enlist in the military, his family is devastated. Alice’s mother tries to convince him that this was not part of the plan but has to relent when he makes up his mind that this is something he needs to do. Matt works hard to instill in Alice and her sister, Ellie, all the life lessons he can before shipping out to Iraq, just in case they are needed. He tries hard to convince everyone that he will be home before they know it but also needs to make sure that they will be okay no matter what.
When he leaves, a huge hole opens up in the Bliss family. The glue that so often bound them together and mediated when they began to unravel has been taken away and no one knows quite what to do. As Alice tries hard to pick up the slack of chores, cooking and keeping Ellie from falling apart, she isn’t quite sure what to do with her feelings of loss, anger and emptiness. She begins to run track which seems, for a fraction of the time, to clear her mind and make her feel normal. When her feet stop running, though, the pain floods in.
While Matt is away Alice continues to bloom into her own, fighting it tooth and nail and waiting for her father to come home and stop missing out. She learns to drive and begins the tenuous steps of first love. She wants desperately to share all of this with her father but the letters and phone calls are becoming few and far between and she is left to navigate her newly developing world by the good sense her father gave her and his whispered voice in her head. She wants to be strong for Matt and help hold the family together so when he gets home everything – her mother and sister, his workshop, their garden – is as he left it. Can she hold her family, and herself, together until and if that happens?
Warning: do not read Alice Bliss without tissues! It has been awhile since a book moved me to tears, but here I am. Alice Bliss is so tender and such a raw story of growing up amidst war that I have a new appreciation for the loved ones left behind. With all the awkwardness that being a teenager entails, this heaped on top seems too much for anyone to bear. But strong, smart, brave Alice Bliss is a testament to how to move through the pain, the loss and the sadness when the one you love most isn’t there.
Rating: 4.5/5
Colleen lives in Tampa, Florida with her husband, son and pet fish. When not working or taking care of her family she has her nose stuck in a book (and, let’s face it, often when she is working or taking care of her family as well). Nothing excites her more than discovering a new author to obsess over or a hidden jewel of a book to worship.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Pamela Dorman Books. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Contemporary, Gift Ideas, Great Fiction, Literature & Fiction
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Good review, Colleen. I am back for a few minutes on the computer. So far so good.
I love books so full of emotion. Not afraid of pulling a box of tissues. This one sounds so great. I read where teenage boys were the most affected by fathers going away for war bui don’t believe it. My cousin, went into a stupor when her father left for the Korean war. She didn’t come out of it until he returned. She was four years old at the time.
It is all of the family that is torn up by it. I want to read about it and how rough it was for her.
Carol Wong
I love a good tearjerker now and then. It is so hard for those who are left behind when someone joins the military. The sacrafice that these men and women make is astounding. But their families go through so much until they come home. I think I will out this one on my wish list along with some tissues.
I believe this is a story that will resonate with me. It sounds emotional and heartbreaking and a story I am compelled to read. The inside look of how a family adapts, accepts or avoids the void left with Matt’s departure will be telling. Even more curious is that it all falls on Alice’s shoulders, at least the sense I am getting. I think her youth and her place in the family is going to be help her to deal with her father’s departure. Even though Matt has left, his presence in the family is still strong. I wonder if this and the memories the family has of him will help them heal or only make it harder to let go. I hope there will be different perspectives shown in the story, those of his wife and other children. I wonder if others may feel his leaving is more an abandonement than a dutiful choice, or if his decision to enlist is something they take pride in. These are only some of the questions I am looking forward to seeing answered in the book.
This sounds like an emotional read. Alice sounds like a wonderful daughter and big sister who is trying to take up the slack while her father is deployed. I would love to read this and will see if I can find a copy at our library. I enjoyed your review very much!
found the review confusing to follow as we weren’t told who is Matt before he was referenced.
as to the story, i’m wondering where Alice’s mother is “As Alice tries hard to pick up the slack of chores, cooking and keeping Ellie from falling apart” ? probably a tale too common to many, it will fill in some gaps for those living the experience and those of us who need to know.
i’m not one to shy away from tears,and this plot definitely sounds like Colleen’s warning will need to be embraced!
thanks for taking time to read and intro this book to us Colleen.
Hi FHC,
Sorry if the review was confusing! I probably should have started the second paragraph with “When Matt Bliss, Alice’s father, decides to enlist in the military..”. I will keep that in mind for the future
.
Regarding Alice’s mother, she had to go back to work when Matt went to Iraq and began putting in long hours. When she came home she spent a lot of time in her room resting and just seemed to spend the majority of her time trying to distract herself. This left Alice and her little sister on their own a lot and Alice had to therefore make dinner, do the laundry, etc. I hope that helps!
Colleen
I think Alice’s mother is in denial and her coping mechanism is to distract and to isolate. On the other hand, it seems Alice herself is trying to hold the family together is “normality” is the way to go. Where her mother has sort of abandoned her motherly duties, Alice picks up. That is why stories like these always intrigue me, they give insights into how people deal with loss differently. Some are subtle and some are more evident.