In This Our Life

IN THIS OUR LIFE
by Ellen Glasgow

 Award: Pulitzer Winner 1942

 Date Read: January 17, 2019

 In This Our Life was somewhat shocking to me, venturing pretty deep into the adultery category, while exploring the themes of kinship and duty. The story is told through the lens of Asa, the pater familias of the Timberlake family and father to Roy and Stanley. I never did get used to their male names. Both tend to have odd relationships with men and are generally unhappy, yet are unclear as to how to fix this.

 In an act of complete selfishness, Stanley runs off with Peter, her sister Roy's husband, and jilting her fiancé. After Peter kills himself, her parents allow Stanley to move back into the house, which I found absolutely shocking. Eventually, Stanley kills a pedestrian with the family car and blames it on Parry, a black up-and-comer with a promising future. Stanley finally admits she falsely accused Parry and Asa proceeds to sort out the mess she created.

 I honestly got tired of Asa and Lavinia continually bailing Stanley out and making excuses for her. She left a lot of pain and ruin in her wake and never quite owned up to the responsibility of what she had done. 

 In looking through a lot of the reviews of this novel, the general consensus is this novel is boring, repetitive and full of unlikeable characters. While some of this is true, particularly the unlikeable characters part, I still thoroughly enjoyed disliking these people. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Gentleman In Moscow

Image
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2018, Goodreads Finalist 2016, Kirkus Finalist 2016   Date Read: February 24, 2017   From Kirkus Reviews:   “Sentenced to house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel by a Bolshevik tribunal for writing a poem deemed to encourage revolt, Count Alexander Rostov nonetheless lives the fullest of lives, discovering the depths of his humanity.   Inside the elegant Metropol, located near the Kremlin and the Bolshoi, the Count slowly adjusts to circumstances as a "Former Person." He makes do with the attic room, to which he is banished after residing for years in a posh third-floor suite. A man of refined taste in wine, food, and literature, he strives to maintain a daily routine, exploring the nooks and crannies of the hotel, bonding with staff, accepting the advances of attractive women, and forming what proves to be a deeply meaningful relationship with a spirited young girl, Nina. "We are bound to find comfo
Read more

An Island

Image
AN ISLAND by Karen Jennings   Nomination: Booker Longlist 2021   Date Read: December 10, 2022   A short but mighty novel, An Island explores the concept of home, family, identity, the impact of political upheaval and the immigrant experience, when one’s suffering is so intense they move from one shitty country to the next. Samuel has finally found a peaceful home on an island somewhere off the coast of Africa. He was hired as a lighthouse keeper and after a tumultuous life, most of which was spent in prison as a political prisoner, he has carved out a life for himself on this island, enjoying a tranquil existence that basks in the quiet tasks of daily living.   Only after exploring Samuel’s life does the reader understand why such an isolated, spare and lonely existence satisfy him, with no desire to escape but only to grow deeper roots. His life witnessed the end of the British occupation, the installation of a brutal dictator and yet another dictator after the first was poisoned. Sam
Read more

The Changeling

Image
THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2017, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2018   Date Read: July 21, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  tragedy thrusts a mourning father into peculiar, otherworldly corners of New York City. When Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both reward and challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian's birth (in a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of  To Kill a Mockingbird  (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly after. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish: Apollo finds himself tied up and beaten by Emma, then forced to listen to the sounds of Brian’s murder. LaValle has
Read more