Big Fish meets The Notebook in this emotionally evocative story about a man, a woman, and an alligator that is a moving tribute to love, from the New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning memoir Rocket Boys—the basis of the movie October Sky.Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the … the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie’s dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer.
Unfulfilled as a miner’s wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by grabbing his pants, he gave Elsie an ultimatum: “Me or that alligator!” After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing to do: Carry Albert home.
Carrying Albert Home is the funny, sweet, and sometimes tragic tale of a young couple and a special alligator on a crazy 1,000-mile adventure. Told with the warmth and down-home charm that made Rocket Boys a beloved bestseller, Homer Hickam’s rollicking tale is ultimately a testament to that strange and marvelous emotion we inadequately call love.
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Lighthearted, perhaps improbable. A diversion from more serious fare.
This is a charming, funny, quirky, fantastic book about what may or may not have happened to the writers’ parents before he came along. Their adventures are certainly crazy but while reading, seem possible! It’s interesting to see their relationship changing, every so slightly, over this period of time and this is one book I wish everyone would read! I hated to put it down; I wanted to continue reading to see what would happen next 🙂
This was an unusual and intriguing animal story that l greatly enjoyed. How often does an interesting alligator tale come along?!
Beautifully written collection of tales involving Albert the Alligator – NOT crocodile, thank you very much!
I enjoyed every page. Hated to finish it.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
I enjoy “trip” adventures, and this one did not disappoint!
Very enjoyable book
I love books by this author, and am amazed this one does not have a solid give star rating. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it reminded me a bit of Forest Gump. Wonderful, endearing characters. Yeah, yeah, yeah!!!
One of those books you wish would never end. The delightful quixotic adventures of Homer, Elsie, and Albert (the pet alligator) are based on real people in this book written by their son, Homer. It kept me laughing and fascinated with the variety of situations where Homer and Elsie found themselves while “carrying Albert home” from the West Virginia coal mines to Orlando, where Albert came from, courtesy of Buddy Ebsen, Elsie’s former boyfriend, who sent Albert as a wedding gift.
I loved this book. You think at the beginning it’s just a good read but it is so much more. It’s one book I’ll read again and again.
Delightful story of a trip to take an alligator back to Florida. Great fun, with all the adventures along the way and the people met along the way! A good read!
Have you ever read a book you wanted to finish but read real slow because you didn’t want the story to end? I have. This is it.
Homer Hickam’s beautifully spun tale of his parents’ journey with Albert the alligator from a land-locked coal mining town in West Virginia to the sparkling sandy beaches of Orlando seemed too delightfully ridiculous to pass up. In the pages between Homer senior’s insistence to his young wife, Elsie, that the reptile given to her as a wedding gift from a man she loved and lost has got to go to the novel’s wistful end, Homer halts a bank robbery, pitches a Depression era bush league baseball team to victory, is lost at sea and sworn into Coast Guard duty along with Albert, and smokes a cigar with Ernest Hemingway. Elsie rides illegally into the night with a moonshine runner, nurses a wealthy invalid, is bequeathed and loses three million dollars, befriends a ghost, and pilots a plane.
And that’s just a sampling of the unplanned adventures that befall Homer, Elsie, Albert and the alligator’s unnamed rooster companion as the Hickams travel in Homer’s vintage Buick convertible on the road to Florida. The story began to bog down a bit somewhere in the middle around South Carolina or Georgia. But I kept reading because I had to know if Albert was carried home.
I won’t spoil the story. But I promise that you’ll laugh in some chapters, hold your breath in others, and brush away a tear or two in between.
Funny, entertaining and an easy read. What more could you ask for!!
A crazy road trip full of real life characters. Makes you want to hug an alligator
What a silly romp! Bogs down in a few places, but overall and enjoyable read and amazingly based on true people and events!
is this Homer all over?
I really enjoyed this book. The side trips on the way to Florida were imaginative.
Lessons were learned.
Not a great book but it was decent.
An entertaining read and quite unpredictable!