A review by msand3
Jennie Gerhardt by Theodore Dreiser

5.0

A devastating novel, and one that I probably shouldn’t have read at this point in my life, as Dreiser hits very close to home in his aching sorrow for the forces of fate that guide our destiny: class, social convention, geography, gender, ethnicity, health, physical appearance. There are no villains, saviors, or victims. Morality, while laudable, gives us no solace or deliverance. There exists only our lives that float like so much detritus along the currents of a brief existence. This novel hit me hard, and in a way I’m having trouble putting into words. I came close to shedding tears at the end; not for Jennie as much as for humanity.