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A House for Alice: From the Women’s Prize shortlisted author of Ordinary People

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I did think the real-life Grenfell tragedy was well woven in and there is a real and justified political anger here (interesting to reflect on what has changed and hasn't since the opening scene of Ordinary People, set on the night of Obama's election). I will say that there were so many characters and storylines involved it sometimes became difficult to keep them straight in my head, and it was often a battle to remain focused. It felt like a number of things were mentioned and then dropped, so the novel felt rather scattered and choppy.

But the setting is London which has changed since Ordinary People times: ‘the poverty is louder, fuller. The book has an interesting start tying together the disaster of Grenfall and a fire at the same time in the house of an elderly man who lives alone. It’s a smaller, altogether more private fire that galvanises A House for Alice, however, one that breaks out on that same hot June night in 2017 and causes a forgetful old man, Cornelius, to succumb to smoke in the home where he once tyrannised his Nigerian wife and their three daughters. Some of the characters' dilemmas were such that I, the reader, found myself prompting them from off-stage.It starts with two tragedies cause by fire and, as a result, I expected there to be crises and adversity to overcome but instead, I find middle class people dealing with, what seem to me, personal troubles rather than public issues (to use C. From there in the first part we circle around the lives of Melissa (and her tendency to date slightly abusive men), Michael and Nicole (whose marriage seems to be floundering on incompatability, but one so strong that I was less clear on why they really ended up together in the first place), Alice (and the small church of which she is part) – and some of their wider family.

I liked the political dilemmas the characters faced as Blacks in London – as immigrants, as parents of Black boys, as caregivers to a cantankerous and abusive father, as parents to children with mental health and criminal justice issues, etc. Through the lives and desires of a typical family, she mourns the dead of Grenfell tower, the death of a father and grandfather and the end of a marriage.Her essays and journalism appear in among others Time Magazine, Vogue, The Independent, The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s Bazaar. Grenfell was only 5/6 years ago and the government still have not provided the right support and after care to those involved. The book’s eponymous matriarch has a habit of coming to a standstill while conversing with her friend on the stroll back from church: “forwardness occasionally distracted”, she and Evans both seem to find. Adel is dismayed at the thought of Alice leaving London and her children and grandchildren behind to live alone in Nigeria while Carol thinks they should respect their mother's wishes.

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