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Book Discussion Guide: Alice's Tulips
Alice's Tulips
by Sandra Dallas
About the Book
Alice Bullock is a young newlywed whose husband, Charlie, has just joined the Union Army, leaving her on his Iowa farm with only his formidable mother for company. Alice writes lively letters to her sister filled with accounts of local quilting bees, the rigors of farm life, and the customs of small-town America. But no town is too small for intrigue and treachery, and when Alice is accused of murder, she discovers her own hidden strengths. Rich in details of quilting, Civil War-era America, and the realities of a woman's life in the nineteenth century, Alice's Tulips is Sandra Dallas at her best.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School -- The significance of a planting of yellow tulips in an Iowa garden becomes evident at the end of this beguiling novel of the Civil War home front. Immature, overconfident, congenial, and flirtatious, newly wed 18-year-old Alice is left with her stern, repressive mother-in-law on a small farmstead when her husband Charlie "goes for a soldier." The book is comprised of the letters Alice writes to her sister over a period of three years to relieve her frustrations and to offer
About the Author
Sandra Dallas published her first novel, Buster Midnight’s Café, in 1990, followed by The Persian Pickle Club (1995), The Diary of Mattie Spenser (1997), a finalist for Western Writers of America Best Western Novel of 1998, and Alice’s Tulips (2000). Her novels have been optioned for films and translated into several foreign languages. She was named Exceptional Chronicler of Western History by the Women's Library Association and Denver Public Library Friends Foundation in 1986.
Earlier in her career, Dallas wrote nine nonfiction books on the history and architecture of the West. They include Sacred Paint, which won the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Wrangler Award, Colorado Ghost Towns and Mining Camps, and No More Than Five in a Bed: Colorado Hotels in the Old Days.
She was on the staff of Business Week for 25 years and, as Denver Bureau Manager, was the publication's first female bureau chief. As a reporter, she covered the mountain states and wrote about corporate mergers, Navajo energy development, and modern-day polygamy in Utah. She currently free-lances for several publications and writes a monthly book column for the Denver Post. Dallas lives with her husband, Bob, in Denver.
Author's Note
Several years ago, my daughter and I found a Civil War-era Friendship Quilt in an antiques shop in Denver. The names were wonderful, and I knew I wanted to use them in a novel. Not long afterward, while reading a quilt book, I came across "Alice's Tulips," the name of a quilt pattern, and thought it would make a terrific book title. I also knew I wanted to write a novel made up of letters. But I wasn't sure I could pull off a story about the Civil War. I am a westerner, and all my novels take place in my part of the country. Still, I spent the first five years of my life on a farm in Virginia, and as a girl, I read everything I could find on the Civil War. But more important, Alice's Tulips is not a book about war. It's not filled with battles and troop movements and politics. It's a story of women left behind during wartime.
Alice Keeler Bullock is the most difficult character I've created. The narrators of my other novels are constant. They deal with life's problems because they have inner strength, because they are true to themselves. Alice is different. You don't like her much at the beginning; I didn't like her much. But she grows; she grew on me. The challenge was to take this shallow young woman and make her into somebody readers would admire.
Incidentally, I quilt a little bit, although I'm not very good at it. But just as lousy cooks can be avid cookbook readers, I devour quilt books, and I wanted to incorporate some of that information into Alice's Tulips. I didn't want Alice to fall under the category of "quilt novel," however. In other words, Alice is not a novel about quilting; instead, it's a novel whose characters happen to be quilters. That's why I put the quilt lore into blurbs preceding each chapter.
What others have said
A word of warning for anyone considering reading a Sandra Dallas book.... Once you start, you will ignore everything else until you finish the book! Alice's Tulips is no exception. Following the life of newlywed Alice Bullock, who has left a more comfortable life to live in Slatyfork, and the life of a farmer's wife. Her husband joins the Union army and leaves Alive with Mother Bullock, her plain speaking (if she speaks at all) hardworking mother-in-law. Life is not easy for a young bride, missing her husband, the comfortable town life she once led, and beginning to face the harsh realities of farm life. The townsfolk of Slatyfork barely tolerate her: they accept her only because of her quilting abilities, and the only solace Alice finds is in her letters to her sister Lizzie. This is a very fast paced book, character driven, and written in a most engaging manner. In the letters Alice writes, we are able to see her mature as a woman and really begin to face the life and changes the Civil War brings to her and those she loves. A wonderful book.
Reviewer Jonathan Wilhelm from Lorain, Ohio USA
I have read all of Sandra Dallas' books (and have enjoyed them all) since finding a copy of Buster's Midnight Cafe at a used bookshop many years ago. Alice's Tulips is a delightful book about women, friendship, quilting, the Civil War, and murder—although not necessarily in that order. When we first meet Alice, she is a newlywed who—since her husband has enlisted with the Union—has just moved from the city to live with her mother-in-law (Mother Bullock) in the farming community of Slatyfork. Even though the story is told in Alice's voice through letters she writes to her sister, Alice comes alive as a charming but flawed individual. At the beginning of the novel, she is vain, immature, quite a flirt, and not an entirely good judge of character. As the War continues, Alice must face a number of challenges and re-examine her relationship with Mother Bullock. It is their growing respect for each other, which neither is willing, or perhaps able to express that forms the core of the story. It was refreshing to read a novel where characters change and grow with such believability. Throughout the novel, a good deal of information is given about quilting, which is Alice's passion—and her refuge. I read this novel aloud to my wife and we both agreed that our only disappointment was that it was too short. Hopefully Ms. Dallas will let readers know what happens to Alice and Charlie, Piecake and Harve, Annie and Joybell, and the irrepressible Miss Kittie.
Reviewer howzerdo from Castleton, NY USA
What a page-turner, nothing else got accomplished for a couple of days because I couldn't put it down! Set on the home front in the Civil War, and written as a series of letters, you will enjoy it, especially if you favor historical fiction and like old time crafts. This was the first of Sandra Dallas' books that I read, and I have liked everything she has written, but Alice's Tulips remains my favorite. Do you know how sometimes you read something, and afterwards think to yourself, "how could I have not discovered this author, and this wonderful book, before?" Well, Dallas and Alice's Tulips are in that category. In fact, I wish I hadn't read this book yet, so that I could re-live the pleasure of that delightful very first read. I have lent this book to several people, and they have all loved it too. Don't deny yourself, get a copy of this book and read it now!
Discussion Guide
- How, amid all the hardship and constant work, do the women manage to bear up and even be cheerful?
- Miss Kittie and Jennie Kate both love to make Alice’s life difficult. Are their motives similar? Who caused Alice more trouble?
- What do you make of Jennie’s jealousy? Why does she decide to give her child to Charlie’s wife, who she always criticizes, instead of her own family?
- Alice claims that Miss Kitty “has had herself a good time, and no harm done-to her, at any rate. She disremembers all the trouble her foolishness caused me.” Is Miss Kitty deliberately trying to hurt Alice, or is she just causing trouble to amuse herself?
- If the men had not been off to war, how would the women have behaved differently toward the drifters? If Annie and Joybell hadn’t been able to help on the farm, would Alice and Mother Bullock have continued to help the drifters?
- Since the letters are from Alice, we only see her side of the story. Do you think Alice correctly assesses Mother Bullock’s feelings for her?
- What is the significance of the tulips to Alice? To Mother Bullock?
- Although Prank values everything his brother tries to destroy, how can he and Nealie continue to keep Samuel’s secrets? Why does he enable him to continue committing crimes?
Taken from Sandra Dallas’ website: sandradallas.com and amazon.com
