Thursday, June 5, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
1929 -- Scarlet Sister Mary, Peterkin
This book, more than any we have read yet, highlights the timely nature of the early Pulitzer Prize novels.
Peterkin's appallingly racist book was considered progressive for the time, yet it describes Mary, a member of a Gullah community, as an earthy woman ready for anything: birthing babies, picking cotton, a roll in the hay with pretty much any man who passes by.
Mary just loves her children -- in the end she is looking after 4 newborns pretty much single handedly and thinks it is just swell.
I guess because the focus is not on the big house but in the fields this book was considered worthy of a Pulitzer. The jury the year this was chosen actually selected another book, but the Pulitzer Committee overruled and chose this one anyway. A prominent committee member resigned, although he claimed it had nothing to do with this controversy.
Ethel Barrymore appeared on Broadway in the adaptation, the only time she appeared in blackface.
Rea this book if you want to feel hopeful about how far race relations have come since the 1920s.
Peterkin's appallingly racist book was considered progressive for the time, yet it describes Mary, a member of a Gullah community, as an earthy woman ready for anything: birthing babies, picking cotton, a roll in the hay with pretty much any man who passes by.
Mary just loves her children -- in the end she is looking after 4 newborns pretty much single handedly and thinks it is just swell.
I guess because the focus is not on the big house but in the fields this book was considered worthy of a Pulitzer. The jury the year this was chosen actually selected another book, but the Pulitzer Committee overruled and chose this one anyway. A prominent committee member resigned, although he claimed it had nothing to do with this controversy.
Ethel Barrymore appeared on Broadway in the adaptation, the only time she appeared in blackface.
Rea this book if you want to feel hopeful about how far race relations have come since the 1920s.
1923 -- One of Ours, Cather
Another disclaimer: I am a big Willa Cather fan.
This, however, is not among her best books.
That said, I found Claude Wheeler to be a fascinating character, especially given Cather's personal story. Claude, a midwestern farm kid, is a fish out of water among his family. Wanting to study, his father cruelly gives Claude a taste of university life only to take it away when he forces Claude to return to the farm.
Typical of Cather's books, the straight-laced, upstanding community members are unsympathetic and fail to appreciate Claude's sensitivities. The Bohemian community and others outside society are his real friends, but family and society reject these relationships.
Most of the women in this book are some combination of unsympathetic, simple minded, and manipulative. The men of Claude's family are louts.
Claude finds happiness in the end by going to war in France. He forms a strong friendship with another soldier and is recognized as a leader in his platoon.
Some aspects of this are funny: When Claude asks his father-in-law to be for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father tries to warn Claude of her headstrong ways by telling him that the daughter is a vegetarian. And Claude goes off to war and spends most of his time appreciating how fresh and sweetly scented the French sheets are. Lavendar!
Cather seems to be working through some pretty strong ideas of identity and gender in this book. Claude's relationship with his soldier friend is nominally platonic, but totally committed and much more meaningful than that he has with his wife.
This, however, is not among her best books.
That said, I found Claude Wheeler to be a fascinating character, especially given Cather's personal story. Claude, a midwestern farm kid, is a fish out of water among his family. Wanting to study, his father cruelly gives Claude a taste of university life only to take it away when he forces Claude to return to the farm.
Typical of Cather's books, the straight-laced, upstanding community members are unsympathetic and fail to appreciate Claude's sensitivities. The Bohemian community and others outside society are his real friends, but family and society reject these relationships.
Most of the women in this book are some combination of unsympathetic, simple minded, and manipulative. The men of Claude's family are louts.
Claude finds happiness in the end by going to war in France. He forms a strong friendship with another soldier and is recognized as a leader in his platoon.
Some aspects of this are funny: When Claude asks his father-in-law to be for his daughter's hand in marriage, the father tries to warn Claude of her headstrong ways by telling him that the daughter is a vegetarian. And Claude goes off to war and spends most of his time appreciating how fresh and sweetly scented the French sheets are. Lavendar!
Cather seems to be working through some pretty strong ideas of identity and gender in this book. Claude's relationship with his soldier friend is nominally platonic, but totally committed and much more meaningful than that he has with his wife.
1922 -- Alice Adams, Tarkington
Tarkington really did not deserve his first Pulitzer; the awarding of this one was criminal.
The tragic ending of Alice Adams comes when the eponymous character gives up her idea of marrying well (social position, money) and starts up those steep steps to the local secretarial school. Alice's grasping mother manages to ruin the family fortunes in the totally predictable process in an effort to bring the family to the wealth and social position that will allow Alice to capture the man of her dreams.
Not a surprise. The ending is ponderously foreshadowed early on when Alice passes by the dreaded secretarial school and considers herself to be so much better off than those poor girls who are forced to look after their own fortunes.
Plotwise, Alice Adams has much in common with The Magnificent Amberson's but without the fairy tale ending. Once again, the casual racism in this book is disturbing.
The tragic ending of Alice Adams comes when the eponymous character gives up her idea of marrying well (social position, money) and starts up those steep steps to the local secretarial school. Alice's grasping mother manages to ruin the family fortunes in the totally predictable process in an effort to bring the family to the wealth and social position that will allow Alice to capture the man of her dreams.
Not a surprise. The ending is ponderously foreshadowed early on when Alice passes by the dreaded secretarial school and considers herself to be so much better off than those poor girls who are forced to look after their own fortunes.
Plotwise, Alice Adams has much in common with The Magnificent Amberson's but without the fairy tale ending. Once again, the casual racism in this book is disturbing.
1921 -- The Age of Innocence, Wharton
I am a big Edith Wharton fan. Be warned.
Wharton's timeless book is about so many things: social pressure, the perils of not fitting in, New York society...
At the heart of Age of Innocence is Newland Archer's doomed love for Countess Olenska, social outcast because she left her abusive husband. the Countess has just enough social clout to have some respectability in the snobbish New York society of the late 19th century, but she never stops pushing society's limits: by living alone, entertaining the wrong people, and being seen with known philanderers.
Wharton's prose is beautiful and understated. She describes the repressed emotions of Newland and the Countess with a restraint that reflects their restraint and somehow makes it seem more real.
The 1993 movie is a faithful retelling and a beautiful movie (Oscar for costume design).
This is the first of the Pulitzers to still be read today.
Wharton's timeless book is about so many things: social pressure, the perils of not fitting in, New York society...
At the heart of Age of Innocence is Newland Archer's doomed love for Countess Olenska, social outcast because she left her abusive husband. the Countess has just enough social clout to have some respectability in the snobbish New York society of the late 19th century, but she never stops pushing society's limits: by living alone, entertaining the wrong people, and being seen with known philanderers.
Wharton's prose is beautiful and understated. She describes the repressed emotions of Newland and the Countess with a restraint that reflects their restraint and somehow makes it seem more real.
The 1993 movie is a faithful retelling and a beautiful movie (Oscar for costume design).
This is the first of the Pulitzers to still be read today.
1919 -- The Magnificent Amberson's, Tarkington
Booth Tarkington's first Pulitzer Prize winning novel features an acceptable plot but largely unsympathetic characters.
Interesting are Tarkington's observations of urbanization. He is clearly against the sprawl and the industrialization that turns everything sooty, yet his heros are industrialists who seem right out of the pages of The Lorax.
The treatment of black people in the book is dated (as in so many early Pulitzers). And Georgie's whinning gets pretty annoying. The 2002 movie interpreted the relationship between George and his mother in a really creepy way that, upon review, was totally supported by the book. But it still grossed me out...
Interesting are Tarkington's observations of urbanization. He is clearly against the sprawl and the industrialization that turns everything sooty, yet his heros are industrialists who seem right out of the pages of The Lorax.
The treatment of black people in the book is dated (as in so many early Pulitzers). And Georgie's whinning gets pretty annoying. The 2002 movie interpreted the relationship between George and his mother in a really creepy way that, upon review, was totally supported by the book. But it still grossed me out...
1918 -- His Family, Ernest Poole
This is a forgotten gem of a book.
The family in His Family is an aging father and his three daughters; Dad is having difficulty with the choices they make.
The characters are timeless. One daughter married and had a family, one chooses a career, and one is a proto-flapper, looking for good times with serial husbands. The issues the daughters and their father face -- immigration, racism, traditionalism, morality -- are as relevant today as they were then. When the career daughter chooses to tend to her students from immigrant tenements, the married daughter disparages the immigrants in ways that are echoed in today's debated over border security. The career daughter faces difficult choices about family versus work, and the proto-flapper just wants to have fun.
Dad's business is good for a chuckle -- he runs a readers service that predates Google. The writing is dated, the plot devices are predictable, but the story is a good one.
The family in His Family is an aging father and his three daughters; Dad is having difficulty with the choices they make.
The characters are timeless. One daughter married and had a family, one chooses a career, and one is a proto-flapper, looking for good times with serial husbands. The issues the daughters and their father face -- immigration, racism, traditionalism, morality -- are as relevant today as they were then. When the career daughter chooses to tend to her students from immigrant tenements, the married daughter disparages the immigrants in ways that are echoed in today's debated over border security. The career daughter faces difficult choices about family versus work, and the proto-flapper just wants to have fun.
Dad's business is good for a chuckle -- he runs a readers service that predates Google. The writing is dated, the plot devices are predictable, but the story is a good one.
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