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bmac11's review
4.0
An insightful study of American culture, class, and personality. It is no wonder Trump is the president.
steve_t's review
4.0
There was a lot of fun notes in this book. Some of the sentences were as long as pages, but were so beautiful written that I couldn't help but read them out loud. The perceptive nature of the narrator was both pretentious and insightful, both describing his subject and himself. Glimpses of Wilbur Flick was a particularly good example, and is a great description of the far-right in the mid 1900s (Impotence and the Desire for Action fueling politics).
There were clear themes about class structure, divided not just between wealth and education, but also social status, gender, and geography. But in a way as if to say that the structures aren't good, and the nature of the structure affects the ability of members to communicate between them. The narrator is kinda Marxist, but has a hard time talking about class to the actual working class for example, because he remains part of the upper class, and people in the West Coast versus the East Coast of the US have different sensibilities and style affecting relationships.
There is a bit of racism and a lot of sexism in the book. It is so blatant and direct that it will make you pause in your reading. It really hurts the stories. I hesitate between whether the writer is sexist or the character is sexist, but I do think the narrator is a bit of stand in for the the writer because they both are about art criticism and Marxism. So that sexism may not just be a character flaw, but a world view.
I still recommend the book for its flowing lyricism, but just be aware that there will be moments when you'll have to put the book down and stare out the window.
There were clear themes about class structure, divided not just between wealth and education, but also social status, gender, and geography. But in a way as if to say that the structures aren't good, and the nature of the structure affects the ability of members to communicate between them. The narrator is kinda Marxist, but has a hard time talking about class to the actual working class for example, because he remains part of the upper class, and people in the West Coast versus the East Coast of the US have different sensibilities and style affecting relationships.
There is a bit of racism and a lot of sexism in the book. It is so blatant and direct that it will make you pause in your reading. It really hurts the stories. I hesitate between whether the writer is sexist or the character is sexist, but I do think the narrator is a bit of stand in for the the writer because they both are about art criticism and Marxism. So that sexism may not just be a character flaw, but a world view.
I still recommend the book for its flowing lyricism, but just be aware that there will be moments when you'll have to put the book down and stare out the window.
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