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4.1 AVERAGE
4.1 AVERAGE
I am in the minority here, but I did not enjoy this book. My mind wandered, as the book was slow and I did not connect with the characters.
One of the best books ever written. Why it isn't a literary classic or its author an icon in the mould of Hemingway, Faulkner or Joyce, beggars belief. Every page, every paragraph gleams with wisdom, compassion and humanity. The prose is eloquent and breathtaking. The characters are so finely and concisely wrought they leap from the page. As a deeply insightful study of the nature of family, friendship, love, marriage and the human capacity to strive against the overwhelming odds that random fate hurls at them, it has few parallels. It's a treatise on the universal questions we're all called upon to answer - or as the author himself puts it in one of his inimitable phrases - a reflection on "the miserable failure of the law of nature to conform to the dream of man".
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Loved it! A great read for anyone at the beginning of marriage or many years in.
It wasn't Angle of Repose, but it was oddly resonant for me. Even though I didn't like many of the characters and wasn't sympathetic to their angst over the trials of not getting tenure, etc., I still was involved and compelled by the time period, the activities of the rich and educated, their LLBeanish existence.
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This has been on my list for some time. I fell into the writing and enjoyed the description of the setting and the introspection of the narrator. It was refreshing to read a novel about friendship and marriage, where both work, and are honored, and are cherished. Even if it's hard, even when they are afraid, and even when they don't know where the future might lead.
4.75/ Beautiful and told with the utmost authority; a story from a distinct voice and stylist. This was Stegner's final novel, and while it didn't receive any of his many earlier accolades (Pulitzer, NBA, CC Gold Medal), it feels like the urgent scrawling of a man's life's wisdom, even with its metered pace and subtle tone. Stegner alternates between a wide focus lens, drawing conclusions of his generation and their tumble through the mid-century decades, and a microscope, detailing the minutiae of culture, manners, and especially class and gender.
The earlier sections, the days of the friends' past, are told with a lovely angle of retrospection-- we only learn of a handful of days in the lifelong friendship, but those days capture a moving portrait of the many levers and pulleys of long term love between friends and couples. It's also a portrait of a world increasingly in the rearview mirror. The trappings of Northeast Academia are on full display--- lakeside Vermont country house with roaring fireplace included. I am sure I will return to this one and find even more meaning with more years behind me.
The earlier sections, the days of the friends' past, are told with a lovely angle of retrospection-- we only learn of a handful of days in the lifelong friendship, but those days capture a moving portrait of the many levers and pulleys of long term love between friends and couples. It's also a portrait of a world increasingly in the rearview mirror. The trappings of Northeast Academia are on full display--- lakeside Vermont country house with roaring fireplace included. I am sure I will return to this one and find even more meaning with more years behind me.
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No