Belinda Dao

*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*SPOILER ALERT*

This is part 8 of my review and summary of Intensely Alice for those of you who have not been able to read the book yet and are dying to know what happens.

WARNING: Please do not continue reading if you do not want to know what happens.

Chapter Ten – Boots and Butts

After a shower, Alice does a little campus tour of her own. She finds herself at Rockefeller Chapel where a wedding probably took place the night before. She stands inside the chapel wondering if Patrick and she will ever be standing there one day. When she returns back to Max P., Patrick is waiting for her with a cab ready to go. Relieved to see her (she was four minutes late), he kisses her goodbye and tells her he’ll remember this visit for the entire summer. On the cab ride to Water Tower Place, Alice closes her eyes and remembers it all.

Before leaving for the airport, Alice, Ben, and Sylvia have lunch with Uncle Milt and Aunt Sally. Aunt Sally asks Alice about her visit to the university and Alice accidentally lets it slips that she was visiting a boy. Although Ben tries to divert Aunt Sally, she still questions Alice, especially about where she slept. Alice teases Aunt Sally by saying she slept in the guys’ suite, but adds in she was sleeping alone on the couch. Aunt Sally is exasperated that boys and girls are in such close proximity these days saying things were much different in her days.

When Alice arrives home to Silver Springs, Elizabeth immediately calls her and tells her that she must come with her to the Metro. At the Metro, Alice sees Keeno and Mark in only jockey shorts, painters’ caps, and work boots with “Naked Carpenters” painted on the seats of their undies. Mark is on the harmonica and Keeno is playing a long saw with a bow (musical saw). Alice and Elizabeth cannot help but laugh along with the people getting off the train. Elizabeth explains that Mark and Keeno got the concept from the Naked Cowboy in Times Square figuring they could make money for the car they want to buy. After forty minutes, Alice tells Elizabeth she is hungry and that they should get home to see if the boys made the news. Liz, still entranced, agrees but does not make an effort to leave. Alice notices Liz sharing a moment with Keeno (exchanging looks). On the way back to the car, Alice questions Liz about her new found interest from “Is it the underwear?” to “The attraction” to “The muscles? The boots? The saw? The butt?”. Liz admits its “all of the above.”

MY TAKE: Aunt Sally is so traditional that it is funny. Alice’s conversations with her are for the most part hilarious because it’s the past trying to understand the present. Oh, how Aunt Sally reminds me of the older people in my life. When I read the second part of the chapter with the Naked Carpenters, I, like Alice, was at first was incredulous at what I was reading, but then I began to laugh at what I was reading. As for Elizabeth, it is nice to see her moving past Tom Perona and Justin Collier (who I had liked when he was first introduced back in the eighth grade) although I never expected her to take interest in Keeno.

Be sure to check out other Intensely Alice updates including chapter summaries and reviews (spoiler alert!), surveys, polls, and more!

In: Books | tags: Alice series, Intensely Alice, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, review. | #