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ottiliareads's review
If I have to read a sentence four times over and it is not a philosophical text (even that I have an issue with), we have to part ways. That book is not for me and if the writer is still alive they need to re-evaluate some life decisions.
igru23's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
phileasfogg's review
3.0
Not a lot happens in the first half of this novel. There are some great sentences. There are sentences that had the potential for greatness, but they go too far in their Yoda-esque syntax, in their, to me, un-unravelable knots of clauses; sentences that are, dare I of all people say? a tad overwritten. Occasionally, when sense failed to penetrate a particularly complex sentence, I wondered if the editor had put a punctuation mark in the wrong place. (And surely those midgets on pages 219 and 239 were actually midges?) I was astounded that this had been a bestseller in 1924. Whatever its merits, and there were some, it didn't seem like something a lot of people would enjoy.
In the second half the pace increased, and the last hundred pages flew, like Iris's bright yellow car through the dark countryside. I could understand then why it was so successful. For much of the novel we are bothered by the stuffy Englishness of most of the characters, the unchallenged happiness-denying rules they maintain. The climax of the novel confronts that old England with a passion and anger that the English wanted to hear in 1924. It feels like the youth of England facing down the old order that led their friends and brothers to the slaughterhouse of the 1914-1918 war.
There are points of historical interest: the loss, still much felt in 1924, of so many young men in the war; and the medical risks women faced in having children or abortions, before penicillin. The latter aspect may come to make this novel more interesting in decades to come, as we enter the post-antibiotic era.
The novel's greatest strength, and most of the reason it still enjoys the popularity it does, is the character of Iris Storm. Iris is like a 21st-century 1st-world woman, trying to live in high society in the early 20th century, where such a woman is a scandalous oddity.
In the second half the pace increased, and the last hundred pages flew, like Iris's bright yellow car through the dark countryside. I could understand then why it was so successful. For much of the novel we are bothered by the stuffy Englishness of most of the characters, the unchallenged happiness-denying rules they maintain. The climax of the novel confronts that old England with a passion and anger that the English wanted to hear in 1924. It feels like the youth of England facing down the old order that led their friends and brothers to the slaughterhouse of the 1914-1918 war.
There are points of historical interest: the loss, still much felt in 1924, of so many young men in the war; and the medical risks women faced in having children or abortions, before penicillin. The latter aspect may come to make this novel more interesting in decades to come, as we enter the post-antibiotic era.
The novel's greatest strength, and most of the reason it still enjoys the popularity it does, is the character of Iris Storm. Iris is like a 21st-century 1st-world woman, trying to live in high society in the early 20th century, where such a woman is a scandalous oddity.
And again I couldn't help thinking of her as of someone who had strayed into our world from a strange land unknown to us, a land where lived a race of men and women who were calmly awaiting the inheritance of our world when we should have annihilated one another in our endless squabbles about honour, morality, nationality.
cq2's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
catdad77a45's review
4.0
I first came upon this title when I taught an LGBT theatre course at USF back 20 years ago - at which time I don't think I'd realized the play version was based upon this novel. The play's suggestion of a gay flirtation between two of the male characters is even MORE oblique in the book, but one can sort of read between the lines, given the narrator's sexless fascination with femme fatale Iris March, whom everyone else can't seem to help lusting after... and his bonhomie with all of his male chums.
Even though one of the most popular novels of the 1920's, very few read Arlen's most notorious novel these days, and that's a shame, since there's much to like in it. The first few chapters are a bit languid for modern tastes, and some of Arlen's ornate prose gets a bit twee, but things definitely pick up by the halfway point, and the ending chapter is a masterly working out of several threads only hinted at throughout the book. That prevarication as to explicitly stating what is happening is both a mite annoying and one of the novel's charms, but one can see how Arlen had to skirt around the prevailing morality, yet still proceed with the tale he wants to tell. There is some unfortunate tacit anti-Semitism and racism that is a bit disconcerting for a modern reader, but I suppose one has to make allowances for the commonplace attitudes of nearly 100 years ago. But there is also one of the best scenes set in a roaring 20's jazz club I've ever read to make up for such.
Even though one of the most popular novels of the 1920's, very few read Arlen's most notorious novel these days, and that's a shame, since there's much to like in it. The first few chapters are a bit languid for modern tastes, and some of Arlen's ornate prose gets a bit twee, but things definitely pick up by the halfway point, and the ending chapter is a masterly working out of several threads only hinted at throughout the book. That prevarication as to explicitly stating what is happening is both a mite annoying and one of the novel's charms, but one can see how Arlen had to skirt around the prevailing morality, yet still proceed with the tale he wants to tell. There is some unfortunate tacit anti-Semitism and racism that is a bit disconcerting for a modern reader, but I suppose one has to make allowances for the commonplace attitudes of nearly 100 years ago. But there is also one of the best scenes set in a roaring 20's jazz club I've ever read to make up for such.
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