Understanding Alice Adams

"In Understanding Alice Adams, Bryant Mangum examines the thematic intricacies and astute social commentary of Adams's eleven novels and five short story collections. Throughout her career Adams was known for creating and re-creating the "Alice Adams woman," who is bright, honest, attractive, thoughtful--and sometimes a bit offbeat. As Mangum notes, Adams's central characters--her heroes--are most often women struggling toward self-sufficiency and independence as they strive to fulfill their responsibilities, including child rearing and other societal commitments.After an overview of Adams's life (1926-1999), Mangum groups the novels and stories by the decades in which they were published, since shifts in the thematic arc of Adams's fiction break conveniently along those lines. He explains how Adams used the novel as an extended workshop for her short fiction. Her novels cover wide swaths of the American experience, and from these sweeping narratives she distilled her sharp, lyrical, vibrant short stories, which earned her twenty-three O. Henry Awards--including six first-place recognitions and a lifetime achievement award--an honor shared with only Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Alice Munro. In this study Mangum explores how Adams treats love, family, work, friendship, and nostalgia. He identifies hope as a thread that links all her main characters, despite how accurately she had anticipated the complexities and challenges that accompanied increased freedom for women in the later twentieth century. "--
Mangum explores the work of American fiction writer Adams (1926-99). Critics generally believe that her main contribution to English literature are her short stories, and many readers find one of her stories most memorable, he says, but it would be a mistake to diminish the importance of her 11 novels. He examines each novel and the five collections of her short stories chronologically through the decades. She produced most of her work during the 1980s and 1990s. Annotation ©2019 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
A comprehensive study of an award-winning writer who delved into the struggle of American womanhood
In Understanding Alice Adams, Bryant Mangum examines the thematic intricacies and astute social commentary of Adams's eleven novels and five short story collections. Throughout her career Adams was known for creating and re-creating the "Alice Adams woman," who is bright, honest, attractive, thoughtful--and sometimes a bit offbeat. As Mangum notes, Adams's central characters--her heroes--are most often women struggling toward self-sufficiency and independence as they strive to fulfill their responsibilities, including child rearing and other societal commitments.After an overview of Adams's life (1926-1999), Mangum groups the novels and stories by the decades in which they were published, since shifts in the thematic arc of Adams's fiction break conveniently along those lines. He explains how Adams used the novel as an extended workshop for her short fiction. Her novels cover wide swaths of the American experience, and from these sweeping narratives she distilled her sharp, lyrical, vibrant short stories, which earned her twenty-three O. Henry Awards--including six first-place recognitions and a lifetime achievement award--an honor shared with only Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Alice Munro. In this study Mangum explores how Adams treats love, family, work, friendship, and nostalgia. He identifies hope as a thread that links all her main characters, despite how accurately she had anticipated the complexities and challenges that accompanied increased freedom for women in the later twentieth century.