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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Another classic from Betty Smith. I love how you can find similarities/the same characters throughout her novels and Maggie-Now is no different. It's about a daughter of Irish Immigrants in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents want better for her but she goes ahead and marries a free spirit. It's not Betty Smith's best and I would urge anybody who hasn't read any of her works to start with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or Joy in the Morning before this but it is a really lovely read nonetheless.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This had a slow start, but then it got going. I didn’t always like Maggie’s choices, but this was still really good. The ending felt a little unresolved, which was frustrating.
Sad to say, but this was my least favorite of all of Smith’s novels. One of the things that has impressed me so much about her writing is that Smith always manages to make her readers feel pity and understanding for even her most infuriating characters. But the men in this book do not have that same nuance, and it makes for a very frustrating read for 95% of the time. I actually gave up on reading it a couple times, because Patrick was so abhorrent at the beginning and Claude was clearly going to ruin Maggie’s life from the moment he showed up. The book started to turn a corner for about thirty pages near the end, where we get to watch Denny work to make his way in the world. That is when it really felt like a Betty Smith book, so I softened a lot towards it, but on the whole I didn’t enjoy the majority of the novel at all.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Loveable characters:
Yes
Yes, of course, it's dated. And still charming, heartbreaking, and hopeful.
Smith's book [b:A Tree Grows in Brooklyn|14891|A Tree Grows in Brooklyn|Betty Smith|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327883484s/14891.jpg|833257] is basically flawless, but this one didn't do it for me at all. It's completely different, to be sure: I think that Smith deliberately makes all the characters in MAGGIE-NOW unsympathetic, which is more like reality than we'd like to admit. However, it's literature, dudes, and self-involved human reader that I am, I'm not going to spend several hours of my life on people who are never happy, won't ever be happy, and don't deserve to be happy, not on account of unfortunate external circumstances but because of their own mindsets.
There are plenty of books with unsympathetic characters that I appreciate (the book, and their depiction of those characters, not the characters themselves), and it's not like Smith does this badly. But MAGGIE-NOW is unrelentingly unsympathetic, and a little less than halfway through, I was forced to close the covers to this book forever, to spare myself the agony of watching these characters cause their own train wrecks.
There are plenty of books with unsympathetic characters that I appreciate (the book, and their depiction of those characters, not the characters themselves), and it's not like Smith does this badly. But MAGGIE-NOW is unrelentingly unsympathetic, and a little less than halfway through, I was forced to close the covers to this book forever, to spare myself the agony of watching these characters cause their own train wrecks.
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Distinct, well-defined characters who all have detailed internal and external lives. Pat’s blustery and broad, but I’m giving it a pass.
This book has a phenomenal, extremely only-in-New-York, ending. It moved me greatly with sentiment, humor, and wonder. One of the best finishes of any book, ever.
This book has a phenomenal, extremely only-in-New-York, ending. It moved me greatly with sentiment, humor, and wonder. One of the best finishes of any book, ever.