Reviews

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

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jessica22's review

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

nahida's review

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

It took me a while to get through this book. I listened to it as an audiobook, and the narration by Dan John Miller is brilliant and expressive. The book itself is quite slow. It starts off with Clyde Griffiths as a young lad, and chronicles his life. Like I said, this account of Clyde’s life is a slow one, but once I was into the final quarter of this book I sort of understood why. It’s hard to explain without giving anything away, but having all that back story, essentially the knowledge of Clyde’s entire life since he was old enough to begin thinking for himself and making his own decisions, really adds something to the book that I think makes it stand out from others that just include the events of the last half of the book. So yeah, it was slow, it was a bit of a trial to read at times, but it was worth it in the end.

It’s hard to say what I think of Clyde himself. I go through a range of feelings regarding him, starting with sympathy and ending in sympathy, with frustration, strong dislike, and confusion mixed in there. This book focuses very well on him, and he is a very well fleshed out character by the end.

I can’t really think of anything else to say about this without giving away what happens at the end, so I’m going to leave it there. Overall, I think it was a pretty good book.

zeydejd's review

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3.0

No doubt this goes on and on and on, but I solidly enjoyed it. Dreiser gets a bad rap for his prose being leaden and heavy, but I actually felt it quite poetic even if there were places where the novel itself could have been tightened up. The intimacy with which readers delve into Clyde Griffiths as a character swings back and forth throughout these 800 pages, a fact I didn't totally pick up on until reading the afterword. I was moderately impressed, though, in those moments when the reader is brought incredibly deep into Clyde's thoughts, inner torment, burning desires, etc. It felt honest and human, even as I felt myself despising Clyde with every additional chapter.

Although overall Dreiser seems to set up the details and events of the novel carefully and thoughtfully, I'm hung up on some of the extraneous tidbits that were peppered in (especially concerning Clyde's investigation and trial in the last third of the book) that didn't seem to serve a purpose, expository or otherwise. It almost felt as though they were written in to later come back to in a meaningful way, but instead were left hanging unsatisfactorily.

bluelightbeam's review against another edition

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dark sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

themaggiemch's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This was an extremely long novel, yet quite rewarding to finish. I'm glad I read it via audiobook as I think I would've been bored with the physical book.

Clyde was a horrible murderer, yet the reader can't help but feel a sort of twisted empathy toward him. In this way, the novel reminded me of "Native Son"- it follows a killer who you can't help but feel slightly sorry for.

Most of the book was exposition, but I didn't mind it that much. It went quickly at 2.5 speed, thank goodness.

Though the book wasn't my favorite, it was certainly an interesting read and I would like to learn more about the case that inspired the novel.