Many years ago, I reviewed Alice Adams’ novel,  Second Chances, for The San Francisco Review of Books (a defunct little magazine).   I was already a a fan of Adams, a San Francisco writer, so I was thrilled when they sent me the book.

And then I went back and read her early novels. One of my favorites is Listening to Billie (1975). The heroine, Eliza, is a Billie Holiday fan.  The novel begins at a club where Eliza and her boyfriend have gone to hear Billie sing. Throughout the novel, Eliza listens to Billie Holiday records.

“Billie is late – of course, she is always late – but the crowd in this small packed rooom is not resigned:  people are restless, and tense.  There is a lot of lighting of cigarettes, looking at watches, loud orders for more drinks.” 

Adams (1926-1999) is a graceful writer, underrated, seldom read anymore.  Her work is consistently absorbing, usually set in San Francisco, and her female characters are complex,  literary, and sexy.  What I like about Eliza is that she is so relaxed about sex.  She loves men, but is not looking for a husband. 

Adams’ description of the workplace is also spot-on.  Eliza, a poet, works part-time as a secretary at a doctor’s office. The office politics are strained: Kathleen, the supervisor, rages against men. Her boyfriend has moved to L.A., and she knows he is cheating on her. She is also verbally abusive to Miriam, a young Black junior secretary, who lives in the ghetto, gets  high a lot, and briefly considers becoming a prostitute. Later, Miriam walks out on the job to to move to L.A. with Kathleen’s boyfriend, mainly because he can buy her nice outfits.  

Adams’ characters are so well-depicted that we can see them vividly, hear Billie Holiday’s music, and feel the anxiety that comes of being a woman on her own. It is also an unusual novel, in that the heroine is so independent, though she worries that her many casual relationships with men mean she is promiscuous.

I loved this well-written novel, and I discovered that it was not just a women’s novel, when Tony, the author of the blog Tony’s Book World (we miss him), reviewed this and some of Adams’ other books.