Alice Rue Evades the Truth is lovely, but I’m struggling with it being labeled as a romcom. There’s romance and there is comedy, but there’s so much more focus on loneliness and isolation. The book is While You Were Sleeping, but make it gay and more Jewish. I want to be clear that I enjoyed Alice Rue and there are definitely funny parts, I just worry that people will expect a light romantic comedy and that’s not what this is.
Alice Rue works as the overnight receptionist at an office building where she sees Nolan Altman stride through to his office. He’s handsome and she’s lonely, so naturally she develops a crush from afar. One night he collapses and hits his head, Alice gives him CPR and calls 911, leading to one of the funniest paragraphs in the book:
“Stay calm, ma’am,” the dispatcher says, and Alice wants to roll her eyes. Stay calm? She’s calm! She’s extremely fucking calm! She’s doing unsupervised CPR on the man she’s supposed to marry, singing a fucking John Travolta song at him, breathing her extremely calm air into his extremely pretty mouth like a fucking professional!“
So yes, there is humor. And yes, Alice and Nolan’s sister, Van, fall in love with each other. There is comedy and romance, but Zipps tackles a lot of weighty subjects here. Beyond the accident and coma and the loneliness and isolation, there’s parental death, caretaking of a parent, a chronic, degenerative illness, and homophobia among other things. There’s an adorable dog, some cute kids, and Alice herself can be quite funny about the situation she finds herself in. But the weight and the levity don’t always balance.
What worked really well for me is Alice coming to life. Alice has been alone for a long time. Her parents were injured in a fire with her mother dying shortly afterwards and her father surviving another 10 years or so, but with significant health issues. Caring for her father kept Alice largely isolated, and since his death she’s been in a metaphorical coma – largely without friends, family, or community. When the Altmans sweep her into their family, believing her to be Nolan’s girlfriend, she comes back to life. She reconnects her with her cousin, her boss switches her to the day shift, and she starts making friends with the people around her. It’s been so long since anyone cared for Alice that she forgot she deserved to be cared for.
Van is a great love interest. While Babs and Aunt Sheila bulldoze Alice into accepting their love and care, Van shows up quietly with coffee and breakfast. Van has her own loneliness to grapple with, not being the straight daughter her parents expected, being diagnosed with MS, and having broken up with her girlfriend not long ago. Alice’s evasion of truth hurts her more than any of the other Altmans. I loved that rather than give a grovel, Alice takes accountability.
I liked Alice Rue quite a bit and I hope it finds it’s readers. I’m interested to see where Emily Zipps goes next.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Random House and Netgalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.