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Reviewed by:
  • Alice by Heart by Steven Sater
  • Natalie Berglind
Sater, Steven Alice by Heart. Razorbill,
2020 [288p] illus. with photographs
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-451-47813-9 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-451-47815-3 $10.99Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 8-10

It's 1940, and fifteen-year-old Alice Spencer is stuck in the Underground with other Londoners as the world above them is bombed to oblivion. Ever since she was a child, Alice and her best friend, Alfred, read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland repeatedly, to the point of memorization; now, as Alfred becomes sicker and sicker with tuberculosis and war permeates every aspect of their living conditions, the two resort to their favorite childhood story, drawing in people from the Tube and characters from Wonderland to meld reality and fantasy. This ambitious novel, inspired by Sater's musical of the same name, is literarily creative, employing devices such as stream of consciousness and dips into Carrollian turns [End Page 275] of phrase. Black-and-white pictures from the war are juxtaposed against Tenniel's original illustrations for Alice, drawing parallels between the chaos of war and the chaos of Wonderland as the text clips along at a frantic pace. Time is a huge theme here, with the White Rabbit's tardiness coinciding with Alfred's eagerness to rush through the book before he succumbs to his disease; both are running out of Time, while Alice, with her obsession with the young girl she once was, attempts to metaphorically turn back the clock. Those open to experimental works will find an interesting piece of literature with much to consider in this novel that would also work well in a classroom setting alongside Carroll's Alice.

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