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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
reflective
relaxing
medium-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
what to say, this is one of those books that stays with you forever. Perfect study of human character in the vein of Dostoevsky, with a final message that struck so close to home.
I did not like any of the characters in this book and it took forever for anything to happen. I was a bit surprised that Willie was cheating on Lucy with Sadie and a lot surprised when he was cheating on Lucy and Sadie with Ann Stanton. I expected Ann and Jack to end up together, and they eventually did. I was also expecting Adam to be revealed as being in love with Jack, but that never happened. When Jack started digging into Judge Erwin I was expecting the scandal to be that the Judge was Jack's real father and was not expecting it to be a bribe, or that the results of that bribe led to a man killing himself. I was expecting the truth of Jack's paternity to come out much sooner than it did and was not expecting the judge to kill himself because of Jack asking him about the scandal. Tom Stark getting hurt playing football was sad and his death being almost a footnote seemed a fitting end. Lucy ending up with the baby that may or may not be her grandson was not surprising either. But I was shocked that Sadie was the reason that both Adam and Willie ended up dead. I was not expecting Sadie to be behind Tiny telling Adam about Ann and Willie. Nor was I expecting Adam to kill Willie over it. I was expecting Willie to pull through and get better, but it made more sense for him to die. The last 2 or 3 hours of the book were much more interesting than the first 15 or 16. Had the whole book been that interesting I would have rated it much higher; but I was expecting a lot from something that won a Pulitzer and was let down.
This is like a cabin built out of one material (long melodic sentences strung together with ands), and some of the transitions are too apparent to be considered fine craftsmanship, the nails sticking through the other side of the joists,, the trim missing or sloppy, but it is still a beautiful cabin in which to sit and look at the world. It falls apart in the end, I think, but don't all buildings?
Read right after the Golden Bowl made me a little cynical about novels, since both were so hellbent on squabbling and filth between humans. But it is a good election year read, no doubt.
Read right after the Golden Bowl made me a little cynical about novels, since both were so hellbent on squabbling and filth between humans. But it is a good election year read, no doubt.
Everything one needs for a good story–scandal, suspense, love, death, betrayal, dry humor.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3127079.html
It’s a really good novel, and like Cimarron and Gentleman’s Agreement the screen rather failed to do it justice - in fact somewhat more so than in the other two cases. The narrator, Jack Burden, has a convincing Hemingwayish voice, and takes us through the career of Willie Stark from his beginning to his bloody end, explaining his motivations and actions partly in his own voice and partly through Burden’s fascinated gaze, and ends with a decent final chapter which wraps up all the plot threads left hanging by the central character’s death. The interlocking relationships of Stark’s political and sexual affairs make a lot more sense on the page than on the screen, especially as regards the personal links between Burden, the narrator, and Stark’s entourage and enemies. The descriptions of landscape and people are detailed and compelling. As mentioned above, there is an entire chapter on slavery and the Civil War, giving historical context to the dismal poltical environment in which Stark flourishes. The novel is still pretty white, but unlike the film there are actually black characters who actually say the occasional sentence. I must also admit that the women characters, though very well drawn, are not given a lot of agency, if anything a bit less than in the film.
It’s a really good novel, and like Cimarron and Gentleman’s Agreement the screen rather failed to do it justice - in fact somewhat more so than in the other two cases. The narrator, Jack Burden, has a convincing Hemingwayish voice, and takes us through the career of Willie Stark from his beginning to his bloody end, explaining his motivations and actions partly in his own voice and partly through Burden’s fascinated gaze, and ends with a decent final chapter which wraps up all the plot threads left hanging by the central character’s death. The interlocking relationships of Stark’s political and sexual affairs make a lot more sense on the page than on the screen, especially as regards the personal links between Burden, the narrator, and Stark’s entourage and enemies. The descriptions of landscape and people are detailed and compelling. As mentioned above, there is an entire chapter on slavery and the Civil War, giving historical context to the dismal poltical environment in which Stark flourishes. The novel is still pretty white, but unlike the film there are actually black characters who actually say the occasional sentence. I must also admit that the women characters, though very well drawn, are not given a lot of agency, if anything a bit less than in the film.
Were we happy tonight because we were happy or because once, a long time back, we had been happy? Was our happiness tonight like the light of the moon, which does not come from the moon, for the moon is cold and has no light of its own, but is reflected light from far away?
This was quite difficult for me to get into because I started off listening to the audiobook and just could not, for the life of me, focus on a word of what was being said; however, once I switched to the e-book and left with an insane amount of highlighted segments, I was able to fully immerse myself.
The story is really well-crafted and the delicacy of the nonlinear chronology is, I think, a thing to be studied. I really liked the way the narrator seamlessly goes back and forth in time and waves the story how he sees fit, leading to a great payoff when everything comes together. It's a classic style of storytelling but it still felt new and exciting. Of course, there are tangents and there's a whole chapter that makes you scratch your head wondering where this is all going, but overall, I had an enjoyable experience reading this book and I'll leave you all with one of my favorite segments (also, can anyone explain why this is written as "a play by Robert Penn Warren" when it's ... not a play?):
You meet somebody at the seashore on a vacation and have a wonderful time together. Or in a corner at a party, while the glasses clink and somebody beats on a piano, you talk with a stranger whose mind seems to whet and sharpen your own and with whom a wonderful new vista of ideas is spied.. Or you share some intense or painful experience with somebody, and discover a deep communion. Then afterward you are sure that when you meet again, the gay companion will give you the old gaiety, the brilliant stranger will stir your mind from its torpor, the sympathetic friend will solace you with the old communion of spirit. But something happens, or almost always happens, to the gaiety, the brilliance, the communion. You remember the individual words from the old language you spoke together, but you have forgotten the grammar. You remember the steps of the dance, but the music isn’t playing any more. So there you are.
I was forced to read this book during my senior year of high school. I absolutely hated it. I found it boring and annoying to read. There was no excitement in the writing, no enthusiasm. The plot itself was also boring and confusing at times.
When I first started reading this book, I was skeptical of it because it was a book about politics. As I read on though, I realized that the book is so much more than just politics. It is a book of corruption, deceit, and betrayal. This book is, without a doubt, the best "politics" book ever!!! 10000 stars if I could :)