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andyg's review
3.0
It always seemed odd to me that Zola claimed to be an optimist, given the darkness of his "Naturalist" style. This book, though it dwells mainly on scenes of depression, crime and poverty, is about happy people. I couldn't help but feel he was all stirred up and waxing philosophical at the time of his "J'accuse" letter, making the viewpoint much more personal than his earlier work.
Surely you could trim 80 pages out of this book without losing much. (admittedly a common criticism of mine when it comes to late 1800s literature) Also the book is extremely heavy-handed, where no evildoer escapes without suffering terrible misfortune. Since as an author his strength lies in portraying misfortune, the "good" people only suffer mildly. :)
Surely you could trim 80 pages out of this book without losing much. (admittedly a common criticism of mine when it comes to late 1800s literature) Also the book is extremely heavy-handed, where no evildoer escapes without suffering terrible misfortune. Since as an author his strength lies in portraying misfortune, the "good" people only suffer mildly. :)
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