I finished the book I was reading while I was away last week and stumbled upon a cute little second-hand bookstore in Hamilton where I browsed happily for about half an hour. I picked this one out because I liked the cover and the title as much as anything else.
Eleven-year-old Alice Duncan has a her body is, literally, growing up too fast. Gawky, innocent, and tongue-tied, Alice is taller than her teachers, with long, long legs and a voluptuous chest she refers to it as "The Breasts."
One Pill Makes You Smaller brings to life the surreal experience of being a girl--stuck in a woman's body. Dierbeck shoots down the rabbit hole of 1970s misbehavior, combining her modern tale with the fantastic universe of Alice in Wonderland, set in the black-lit, drug-infested art world of Andy Warhol's Manhattan. When Alice is shipped off to a freethinking art camp in North Carolina, she encounters J.D., a sweet-talking adult man who engages her in a dangerous flirtation. This deliciously pop, self-assured debut is an inspired paean to lost innocence.
It's about an eleven-year-old girl whose body betrays her when she suddenly grows taller than everyone else in her class and matures rapidly. Her mother ran off and her father is in a mental hospital, leaving Alice to be "taken care of" by her 16-year-old half sister, Esme. Esme is far more interested in getting high and screwing rock stars than looking after Alice, leaving her alone for long periods, or with her friend Rabbit who can't look away from Alice's newly formed breasts.
When Alice gets sent to an artist's camp for the summer, she decides this is the time to reinvent herself. And when she meets JD, a sweetly stoned older man who flirts with her and makes her feel special, she flies down a rabbit hole of new experiences and sensations that destroy her innocence forever.
I can't say I enjoyed this book, exactly. It was a little like watching a car crash - I couldn't look away, even though I felt like I should. I felt so sorry for poor Alice, struggling to understand that her newly adult body changes the way people perceive her, that "the breasts" make her an object to be scrutinized and desired. She's so young and so innocent at the beginning of the book, despite the hedonistic world she lives in, but by the end, she's become a woman who knows how to use her "charms" to get what she wants.
It's a story about the end of innocence, set against the backdrop of '70s excess and the pretentious art world and felt all too real and plausible. I'm not sure I'd recommend it; it made me feel very uncomfortable. But I think sometimes it's important to feel that way so you can figure out what it is that creates that feeling.
But don't just listen to me. Here's the blurb:
Eleven-year-old Alice Duncan has a her body is, literally, growing up too fast. Gawky, innocent, and tongue-tied, Alice is taller than her teachers, with long, long legs and a voluptuous chest she refers to it as "The Breasts."
One Pill Makes You Smaller brings to life the surreal experience of being a girl--stuck in a woman's body. Dierbeck shoots down the rabbit hole of 1970s misbehavior, combining her modern tale with the fantastic universe of Alice in Wonderland, set in the black-lit, drug-infested art world of Andy Warhol's Manhattan. When Alice is shipped off to a freethinking art camp in North Carolina, she encounters J.D., a sweet-talking adult man who engages her in a dangerous flirtation. This deliciously pop, self-assured debut is an inspired paean to lost innocence.
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