Alice I Have Been

This was one of those books that I wanted to love. It was a book about how narrative shapes one's identity and the identities that are forced upon us to perform, the identities we envision for ourselves and the distance between these idealized selves and the way in which we're perceived. Or, at least that was the book I wanted it to be.

In reality, this book was more like an Austen novel: focused on British women and their prospects. Which, I mean, is fine, if you like that sort of thing.

I guess I'm also not enough of a historical fiction lover. The creepiness with which Charles Dodgson was portrayed made my skin crawl. I half wanted to shake the book and say: “You know he was a real person, right? You can't just make up whatever you want about him.” I think the way that Dodgson (and JM Barie) tend to be portrayed in retrospective fictional pieces as sketchy pedophiles says a lot of really negative things about our society and without getting into a feminist rant, it was hard to read this book without internally getting into a snit over it.

The book didn't grab my attention until I was about 70% done with the book. I did like how Melanie Benjamin wrote in depth about each of the characters. Overall, the book was not the best, but reading more about who the real Alice from Alice Adventures in Wonderland did gravitate me towards reading this book. I also think if you enjoy historical fiction, this would a book you may enjoy.