Becoming Alice: Alice Rene Interview

In an effort to establish her own unique identity, Rene changes her name from Ilse to Alice and makes the continuous, and often difficult, effort to fit in with those around her.

Rene includes family pictures and portraits in the memoir, giving the reader yet another lens for her story. And a story it is; Rene does not simply recount a chronological timeline with notable events. The pictures and words together allowed me to deeply engage with each of Rene’s real characters.

The mother of three children, Rene now lives in southern California with her husband. She received her master’s degree is social welfare from UC Berkeley.

A colleague of mine introduced me to Rene and I’m thrilled to share my recent interview with her.

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Laura Cococcia: Becoming Alice is an incredible memoir – one of the most amazing stories I have read in years. Did you always know there was a book inside you?

Alice Rene: I had never thought about writing my story down. Actually, most people who know me don’t even know that I am foreign born and not a hundred percent American. I did not make a secret of my early years, but unless the subject came up in conversation, I did not talk about it.

There was too much to tell. It was not until my grandson had an assignment in high school to choose an occurrence of the 20th century that changed the course of history, and he chose the Holocaust, that an interview took place between us in which I told him a part of this history. It was not until he left my house that I thought my story was important for a larger audience to know.

Laura Cococcia: What was the most rewarding part about writing your memoir? The most challenging?

Alice Rene: The most rewarding, and completely unanticipated, part of writing my book was to discover that I truly enjoyed the art and craft of writing itself. And of course the most challenging part has been to “get it right.” I thought that to write down the happenings in a chronological order would not be any more interesting than reading a history book.

I decided to tell my story as a “story” which has interesting characters, characters with strengths and weaknesses, with positive and negative traits, characters who are like any person we might know. And what has been gratifying is to learn that readers have been able to identify either themselves or someone in their family who is just like someone I write about in my book.

Laura Cococcia: Since the book’s release last year, you’ve received numerous awards! Did you ever imagine that Becoming Alice would gain such widespread attention?

Alice Rene: No, this has come as a complete surprise to me. Needless to say I have been most gratified and deeply honored.

Laura Cococcia: Given that you are a first-time author, what expert advice can you give those of us currently working on books or even those that aspire to become authors?

Alice Rene: I think you need to keep writing and testing your work by reading portions of it to any writing group in your community. Also, you should be willing to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite, until you feel that you have gotten it “right.” When you get there, and you will if you put in the time, you will be floating on cloud nine.

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You can read more about Alice Rene and Becoming Alice on her website or blog. You can also read Frank Mundo’s interview with Alice (my Examiner.com colleague who introduced us.)

Click here to read more about Becoming Alice at Amazon.com.