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A review by lewismillholland
The Red Badge of Courage and Selected Short Fiction by Stephen Crane
2.0
As much as I want to love the work of a journalist-turned-author, I couldn't fall in love with this book. Its embrace of impressionism gives us the story only through Fleming's eyes and Fleming's mind, and god does he have annoying eyes and mind. It's a series of rationalizations and self-inflations that don't go anywhere. Maybe it was exciting to readers in 1900? For me, at least, I couldn't get into it. Only read about 80% of the main story, the Red Badge of Courage.
The selected works of fiction in the back were almost uniformly duds as well, except for the one about the boat in the open sea. There are four men adrift in the ocean -- a cook, the captain, the oiler and the correspondent (a thin veil for Crane himself) -- and so much of the story's focus is on dialogue and actions. There's little room for existential ennui and inner turmoil when death is so close at hand. It's for that story alone that I'm giving this book two stars instead of one.
One last thought. There's a pretty widespread critique of Crane's depiction of the Civil War without having served himself (he was too young). But I'm not sure why that's a problem? Assuming he read contemporary texts and spoke with a veteran or two, I don't see why he isn't entitled to write about the topic. Unless there's more that I'm missing?
The selected works of fiction in the back were almost uniformly duds as well, except for the one about the boat in the open sea. There are four men adrift in the ocean -- a cook, the captain, the oiler and the correspondent (a thin veil for Crane himself) -- and so much of the story's focus is on dialogue and actions. There's little room for existential ennui and inner turmoil when death is so close at hand. It's for that story alone that I'm giving this book two stars instead of one.
One last thought. There's a pretty widespread critique of Crane's depiction of the Civil War without having served himself (he was too young). But I'm not sure why that's a problem? Assuming he read contemporary texts and spoke with a veteran or two, I don't see why he isn't entitled to write about the topic. Unless there's more that I'm missing?