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cogee87's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
nation's review against another edition
5.0
The first time I picked this up I devoured it, like the meal you begin eating simply because it is placed before you, but which tastes so good you cannot stop until you have finished it. When I put the book down I had to spend several minutes trying to figure out where I was. As it turns out, I happened to be in a hotel room in Berlin, listening to the light-rail rattle by outside. I felt tired and confused and I wasn't sure what to do next.
Other reviewers have tried to make the case that this book is bad – or, not as good as it "could be," – because it meanders, because it is too emotional or because it is too matter-of-fact, or because it has too light a touch, or it's too focused on the hotels or too focused on relationships with women, grounded in too much materialism or skewed too heavily towards the fantastical, etc... All of these comments seem to me to miss the point. They approach the point, and all form a circle around it, but cannot quite find the center.
Steven Millhauser's primary concern is not what his character's dream is and is not. For the record, Martin Dressler's dream is not the money which he makes easily, it is not the adventuresome society of burgeoning laissez-faire capitalism he is born into, and it is not love or sex, though all these forces are present and serve to complicate matters. Believe it or not, his dream is not even a perfect hotel.
All dreamers, all artists, all creators wish simply to build a world: a microcosm which actively encompasses and contains their singular vision of the macrocosm in which they find themselves. Thus, like any great novel or painting or piece of music, the Grand Cosmo – Dressler's last attempt at creation - seeks to hold inside of it an entire city, perhaps an entire world by extension. However, as I said, it is not the Grand Cosmo which is important to Millhauser, but rather what the Grand Cosmo does to its creator. Millhauser's goal is to reproduce what it feels like to have a dream, an overwhelming dream, and to have one's dreams slip into one's daily life and vice versa. Millhauser wants us to see through the eyes of a dreamer.
Therein lies the frustration for the average reader: In the form of fascinating subplots, themes, and characters, they see Millhauser stumble seemingly at random upon perfect jewels. He picks them up, lets us stare for a moment through their beauty, and then returns them to the ground and moves on. We want him to collect them, to follow the trail to its conclusion, but he will not. He skims the surface of many topics our imagination might like him to dive into, but again and again he refuses. That is because to a dreamer, when contrasted with a dream, these things are ultimately trivial and unimportant.
Millhauser is showing us that in the mind of the dreamer and in the fantasy world Dressler has created for himself, the concerns of the material world fade to white noise. A previous reviewer calls Martin Dressler "out of touch," and though I find the term somewhat pejorative I think it is accurate. But let us not confuse our characters with our authors. Millhauser is much too talented to simply abandon or gloss over that which could have made his story better. No, each detail presented to us by and through the macrocosm (otherwise known as the "real world") is merely a study in contrast, a grey version of the fully-colored thing as it exists in Dressler's fantasies, a landmark showing him and us the way to our eventual goal, which is the Ideal. Yes, Martin Dressler is out of touch with the world around him; but he is very much in touch with the world of dreams, and this comes through the text, beautiful and subtly.
Other reviewers have tried to make the case that this book is bad – or, not as good as it "could be," – because it meanders, because it is too emotional or because it is too matter-of-fact, or because it has too light a touch, or it's too focused on the hotels or too focused on relationships with women, grounded in too much materialism or skewed too heavily towards the fantastical, etc... All of these comments seem to me to miss the point. They approach the point, and all form a circle around it, but cannot quite find the center.
Steven Millhauser's primary concern is not what his character's dream is and is not. For the record, Martin Dressler's dream is not the money which he makes easily, it is not the adventuresome society of burgeoning laissez-faire capitalism he is born into, and it is not love or sex, though all these forces are present and serve to complicate matters. Believe it or not, his dream is not even a perfect hotel.
All dreamers, all artists, all creators wish simply to build a world: a microcosm which actively encompasses and contains their singular vision of the macrocosm in which they find themselves. Thus, like any great novel or painting or piece of music, the Grand Cosmo – Dressler's last attempt at creation - seeks to hold inside of it an entire city, perhaps an entire world by extension. However, as I said, it is not the Grand Cosmo which is important to Millhauser, but rather what the Grand Cosmo does to its creator. Millhauser's goal is to reproduce what it feels like to have a dream, an overwhelming dream, and to have one's dreams slip into one's daily life and vice versa. Millhauser wants us to see through the eyes of a dreamer.
Therein lies the frustration for the average reader: In the form of fascinating subplots, themes, and characters, they see Millhauser stumble seemingly at random upon perfect jewels. He picks them up, lets us stare for a moment through their beauty, and then returns them to the ground and moves on. We want him to collect them, to follow the trail to its conclusion, but he will not. He skims the surface of many topics our imagination might like him to dive into, but again and again he refuses. That is because to a dreamer, when contrasted with a dream, these things are ultimately trivial and unimportant.
Millhauser is showing us that in the mind of the dreamer and in the fantasy world Dressler has created for himself, the concerns of the material world fade to white noise. A previous reviewer calls Martin Dressler "out of touch," and though I find the term somewhat pejorative I think it is accurate. But let us not confuse our characters with our authors. Millhauser is much too talented to simply abandon or gloss over that which could have made his story better. No, each detail presented to us by and through the macrocosm (otherwise known as the "real world") is merely a study in contrast, a grey version of the fully-colored thing as it exists in Dressler's fantasies, a landmark showing him and us the way to our eventual goal, which is the Ideal. Yes, Martin Dressler is out of touch with the world around him; but he is very much in touch with the world of dreams, and this comes through the text, beautiful and subtly.
duparker's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. The prose was great, but the simplicity of the story was not. I didn't find it fascinating or driving to the plot. I wanted to learn more about the character than that he was intelligent and ambitious. What I did like was the description of NYC in that era and the way families interacted and lived.
beefmaster's review against another edition
3.0
At the sentence level this is okay most of the time. Millhauser uses a lot of adjectives but they're often the most obvious one: parlors are either "dark" or "sunny"; chairs are "soft" or "hard." Nothing particularly surprising or unsettling or jarring or pleasing.
At the macro level, I liked it a lot. It's less discrete scenes and more rumination. I wish I knew the technical term for the grammatical case in which this style is written. Alas.
I loved the finale, the towering description of the silly hubristic skyscraper. Made me laugh
At the macro level, I liked it a lot. It's less discrete scenes and more rumination. I wish I knew the technical term for the grammatical case in which this style is written. Alas.
I loved the finale, the towering description of the silly hubristic skyscraper. Made me laugh
leahreadsalot's review against another edition
4.0
Our high school's AP class was reading this one so I picked up a copy to give it a try. It reminded me very much of The Great Gatsby, both in style and story--the pursuit of the American Dream; the danger of dreams when they consume us, etc.
carlylottsofbookz's review against another edition
2.0
Another Pulitzer down!
This book is hardcore between a 2 and 3 stars for me, but I just couldn’t bring myself to bump it to 3.
I can see why this book won the Pulitzer (unlike some)…it’s the tale of an American dreamer who dreams big….then maybe too big?
But the style was not for me. Here you have pages upon pages describing details of the hotel that Martin Dressler has built….But the only one to two lines of plot. (Such as when one character came in with a gun pointed at her sister in the middle of the night….shoots, but not her sister.).
I would have more of the human interactions described than the location. So two stars.
This book is hardcore between a 2 and 3 stars for me, but I just couldn’t bring myself to bump it to 3.
I can see why this book won the Pulitzer (unlike some)…it’s the tale of an American dreamer who dreams big….then maybe too big?
But the style was not for me. Here you have pages upon pages describing details of the hotel that Martin Dressler has built….But the only one to two lines of plot. (Such as when one character came in with a gun pointed at her sister in the middle of the night….shoots, but not her sister.).
I would have more of the human interactions described than the location. So two stars.
drewmoody321's review against another edition
4.0
Read my full review here: http://thepulitzerblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/entry-28-martin-dressler-the-tale-of-an-american-dreamer-by-steven-millhauser-1997/
oviedorose's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
4.0
imds's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Sexism, Infidelity, and Racism