2 posts tagged “new england”
Slate's audio book club did a review of Philip's Roth's Everyman. One of the commentators said that John Updike had tackled "the same issue" in Villages and had done a better job. The issue was a man who narrates his life as a series of sexual conquests.
I really enjoyed Everyman. It was my first experience with Roth and I found the story rather poignant and haunting. Villages was my first experience with Updike as well. Whereas I was able to sympathize with Roth's protagonist, there was nothing to like about Updike's main character who learns nothing by the end and neither has the reader.
I really enjoyed Everyman. It was my first experience with Roth and I found the story rather poignant and haunting. Villages was my first experience with Updike as well. Whereas I was able to sympathize with Roth's protagonist, there was nothing to like about Updike's main character who learns nothing by the end and neither has the reader.
Ethan Frome is often described as bleak, depressing, and even unbelievable.
It's definitely a tragedy.
Maybe it's because I moved to New England eight years ago, but I could really relate to the desolate feeling winter backdrop of this story. The weather frames the sadness perfectly.
Everyone in this book loses out. Life, hope, happiness it all goes away. But in spite of that, the book is somehow not as depressing as I had expected.
It is also filled with suspense. And it perfectly describes what it's like to want someone you can't have.
I would say it is the most touching, "sad book" I've ever read.
It's definitely a tragedy.
Maybe it's because I moved to New England eight years ago, but I could really relate to the desolate feeling winter backdrop of this story. The weather frames the sadness perfectly.
Everyone in this book loses out. Life, hope, happiness it all goes away. But in spite of that, the book is somehow not as depressing as I had expected.
It is also filled with suspense. And it perfectly describes what it's like to want someone you can't have.
I would say it is the most touching, "sad book" I've ever read.
