Calvin Trillin, an American journalist, humorist, food writer, poet, memoirist and novelist, tells us in his short book, About Alice, “But I never stopped trying to match that evening--not just trying to entertain her but trying to impress her. Decades later-- after we had been married for more than thirty-five years after our girls were grown--I still wanted to impress her”(14). Alice Trillin, the spouse of Calvin Trillin and a muse for many of his works. This book serves as a memoir for Alice and how she influenced Trillin as an author. Trillin shares this memoir to provide insight on the person who he felt was his companion, teacher, and muse. Throughout the book, Trillin entertains the audience about his life with Alice through their emotional journey together. To begin, Trillin establishes who Alice is by focusing on what she meant to him. He does this in the passage below, …show more content…
If the piece was meant to be funny, the sound of her laughter from the next room was a great reward. The dedication of the first book I wrote after I’d met her, a collection of comic short stories, said, until I decided that the last few words were too corny, “These stories were written for Alice--to make her giggle. ” When I wrote in the dedication of a book “For Alice,” I meant it literally. In that sense, the headline on her obituary in the Times was literally true, as well as in the correct order: it described her as “Educator, Author and Muse. ” … When the novel was published, the dedication said, “I wrote this for Alice. Actually, I wrote everything for Alice.