The Alice Network

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-11

Chapters 12-17

Chapters 18-23

Chapters 24-29

Chapters 30-36

Chapters 37-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Warrior Women

The Alice Network takes its inspiration from the real wartime experiences of female spies. The novel amplifies on those experiences through the theme of women warriors. Eve embodies the typical warrior woman as she and her female colleagues experience the double-standard applied to women who enter the male-dominated arena of combat. Allenton excludes Eve from weapons training, and Lili cautions Eve that none of their superiors would trust a female agent who’s been sleeping with the enemy.

The book repeatedly demonstrates the danger of underestimating warrior women. Cameron believes women make the best agents because everyone believes they are passive and harmless. Lili looks fragile, but she does more real damage to the enemy than a bomber squadron. Eve’s greatest strength as a spy is her stutter because most people think she’s an imbecile. Both women play up their perceived helplessness and confusion when they want to slip past German checkpoints.

Warriors women come in all stripes, as demonstrated by 19-year-old Charlie. Although she’s been dominated and controlled by her overbearing family all her life, she finds a way to assert herself and save her friends. The unlikely combination of a handicapped crone and a pregnant ingenue proves to be lethal when the pair of them take down René Bordelon: “He toppled back, sliding to the floor with his ruined hand flung out in surprise. Surprised to the end that there was pain he couldn’t outrun, vengeance he couldn’t escape, consequences he couldn’t evade. Women who couldn’t be beaten” (474).

Broken Lives

All three of the main characters in the novel have been broken in some way. Eve’s experiences during World War I break her both physically and psychologically. René breaks all the bones in her fingers, but this is less dire than the damage he does to her spirit. In convincing Eve that she’s betrayed Lili, he forces her to carry an undeserved burden of guilt for the next 32 years. Eve’s thirst for vengeance against René may have less to do with her shattered hands than with her shattered faith in herself.

Finn is also a victim of traumatic wartime experiences. Like Eve, he carries a burden of undeserved guilt. He’s not only traumatized by the sight of the concentration camp survivors at Belsen, but he’s haunted by the vision of a gypsy girl whom he failed to save:

She’s staring up at me, eyes like stones at the bottom of a well, and her hand is resting on my boot like a white spider. And she dies, right there. Her life slips away as we stare at each other. I’m here to rescue her, my regiment and me—and that’s when she dies. She lives through so much, and she dies now. (309)

Charlie is a vicarious survivor of wartime trauma. When her brother returns from battle, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Charlie feels guilty that she couldn’t save him from committing suicide. This failure causes her to act out and sleep around, which then leads to her unwanted pregnancy and alienation from her parents. Charlie’s loss of her brother precipitates her search for Rose.

Guilt and Redemption

The theme of guilt and redemption is closely tied to the theme of broken lives. Eve, Finn, and Charlie all feel guilty about someone they failed to save. Eve regrets betraying Lili’s identity to the Germans. Finn regrets not arriving in time to save the gypsy girl. Charlie regrets not being there for her brother at the critical moment he decided to kill himself. It might be argued that none of them deserve this harsh self-judgment, but they all carry a burden of guilt, nonetheless.

Even though none of them realizes it at the outset, their journey to find Rose is also a journey toward their own redemption. Eve convinces herself that she’s helping Charlie only because she wants revenge against René. What she ultimately receives is the critical knowledge that she never betrayed Lili at all. She was a good spy; even under torture, she didn’t betray her allies or herself. This frees her from the burden of guilt she’s carried for three decades.

Finn’s initial motive for the trip is that he owns the car Eve wants to use for the journey, and he’s attracted to Charlie. In helping both women, he helps himself achieve a new sense of purpose and a future full of promise.

Charlie makes the most radical shift from guilt to redemption. At the beginning of the novel, she feels like a complete failure, unable to help her brother or make her family proud of her. Even though she fails to save Rose, she succeeds in reversing Eve’s course toward self-destruction. Charlie also saves her “Little Problem” and creates a rewarding life for herself, her daughter, and Finn.