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A review by wrens
McTeague by Frank Norris
1.0
The plot is interesting but painful to read, and the same message of greed being bad and leading people to immoral decisions which eventually comes back to bite them in a karmic outcome is repeated over and over again.
I had issues with the way the characters were written- I know they're meant to portray the aforementioned message, but their motives or reason for wanting wealth so badly is left unexplained. None of the characters were particularly pleasant either. Reading a little further around Norris' works, he apparently was part of a movement of writers who focused on the nitty gritty details of poverty, lower class, etc, and I have to say it's not a movement I'm fond of (or maybe he just took the movement for the sake of it, and didn't actually utilise these aspects with the right motivations). On top of this, there are a lot of characters which get introduced whom hold very little relevance in regards to the story and the worldbuilding- they're memorable, yes, but for all the wrong reasons.
One of my main gripes is the description of McTeague and Trina's relationship. I'll try to give a sense of it through direct quotes:
"Suddenly he took her in his enormous arms, crushing down her struggle with his immense strength. Then Trina gave up, all in an instant, turning her head to his. They kissed each other, grossly, full in the mouth."
Then, after they get married:
"An immense joy seized upon him-- the joy of possession. Trina was his very own now."
"yielding all at once to that strange desire of being conquered and subdued."
How is this appealing? The relationship is clearly toxic and unhealthy, and that seems unnecessary; I think the message of greed ruining lives would've been much more effective if they actually had a loving, healthy relationship and turned against one another as they got more individually enamoured by pursuit of wealth.
The book does have its moments: some of the descriptions of scenes and nature is nicely written, and the fact that it's short.
I'm kinda disappointed because I think it had potential, and Norris does have a way of writing the book that compels the reader to keep going, but it's just let down by factors that are way too large to ignore.
I had issues with the way the characters were written- I know they're meant to portray the aforementioned message, but their motives or reason for wanting wealth so badly is left unexplained. None of the characters were particularly pleasant either. Reading a little further around Norris' works, he apparently was part of a movement of writers who focused on the nitty gritty details of poverty, lower class, etc, and I have to say it's not a movement I'm fond of (or maybe he just took the movement for the sake of it, and didn't actually utilise these aspects with the right motivations). On top of this, there are a lot of characters which get introduced whom hold very little relevance in regards to the story and the worldbuilding- they're memorable, yes, but for all the wrong reasons.
One of my main gripes is the description of McTeague and Trina's relationship. I'll try to give a sense of it through direct quotes:
"Suddenly he took her in his enormous arms, crushing down her struggle with his immense strength. Then Trina gave up, all in an instant, turning her head to his. They kissed each other, grossly, full in the mouth."
Then, after they get married:
"An immense joy seized upon him-- the joy of possession. Trina was his very own now."
"yielding all at once to that strange desire of being conquered and subdued."
How is this appealing? The relationship is clearly toxic and unhealthy, and that seems unnecessary; I think the message of greed ruining lives would've been much more effective if they actually had a loving, healthy relationship and turned against one another as they got more individually enamoured by pursuit of wealth.
The book does have its moments: some of the descriptions of scenes and nature is nicely written, and the fact that it's short.
I'm kinda disappointed because I think it had potential, and Norris does have a way of writing the book that compels the reader to keep going, but it's just let down by factors that are way too large to ignore.