After my last review, in which I recommended that you opt
for anything written by Gregory Maguire rather than Daniel Levine’s Hyde, I feel a bit hypocritical, because
I found After Alice to be
surprisingly mediocre. In his previous
works, such as the Wicked series and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister (his
retelling of the Cinderella tale), Maguire uses well-known stories as
scaffolds, as frameworks, and around them he builds rich and fantastical worlds
with new characters, details, and perspectives that both fit within and enhance
the original narratives. After Alice, on the other hand, is less
an expansion of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland
and Looking Glass and more a
rehashing of them. In it, a second
child, Ada Boyce, follows Alice down the rabbit hole and traces her path
through Wonderland, meeting the same characters and, in some cases, having nearly
the same conversations. Maguire is
successful in imitating Carroll’s absurdist style of dialogue, but there’s very
little that’s original in this portion of the story.
In parallel to Ada’s adventures, we follow the story of Alice’s
older sister, Lydia, as she navigates the separate worlds in and around her
household. While her father entertains a
meeting of intellectuals, including Charles Darwin, Lydia is mostly banished to
the kitchen so as not to disturb the guests.
There she quarrels with the servants and attempts to avoid Ada’s
tiresome governess (who is distraught at having lost track of Ada), while searching
for excuses to speak to one of her father’s guests, a handsome young
American. Lydia’s story is rather more
interesting than Ada’s, primarily because it is more original, and fans of
Maguire’s own dense yet poetic style will enjoy this part of the tale.
Generally speaking, After
Alice is a short and easy read, more homage than reimagining. Serious Maguire or Carroll fans will likely
be disappointed, but those looking for an undemanding fantasy that can be
finished in a summer weekend will find something in it to enjoy.
