FICTION

THE PASSION OF ALICE by Stephanie Grant (Houghton Mifflin: $19.95; 260 pp.). One of the most amazing aspects of Stephanie Grant’s first novel, “The Passion of Alice,” is that although the protagonist is an anorexic woman struggling with her sexuality while in a mental hospital, the novel itself is not an “anorexic’s story” a “sexual identity story” or even a “mental illness story.” It is simply a smart, funny, wonderful book that will contain truth for every reader.

Alice Forrester is 5-feet-11 and 94 pounds when she is admitted into Seaview Hospital. “People think that anorexics imagine ourselves fat and diet away invisible flab,” Alice says. “But people are afraid of the truth: We prefer ourselves this way, boiled-down bone, essence.” Alice’s relationship to her own body and to the physical world is beautifully described. Through the force of her characterizations, Grant has somehow rendered anorexia completely understandable, not just from an intellectual viewpoint, but emotionally as well. In addition, “The Passion of Alice” has a plot full of bizarre surprises--some hilarious, some incredibly sad. The best thing about this stunner of a first novel is that it is not limited to hospitals, relationships or anorexia. In truth, it is a book about desire.