Poor White Book

An ambitious book that bored me for much ot its length. This book's intent was telling the tale of the impacts of the Industrial Revolution on small-town America as well as telling the personal tale of some of those involved. But the book got bogged down (in parts) by the boring telling of the story of the lead character (Hugh McVey). The character never really progressed (throughout the book), but worst of all he never really got interesting. He took long walks and brooded about how he didn't fit in with society. And he did this a lot. Brooding can be interesting if it is varied and insightful, but it can be really BORING if it is the same thoughts over and over. Hey, the main character was a great inventor, but the author never really showed the excitement of this aspect of the main character's life. The secondary main character (Clara) also lead a life of 'quiet desperation', but at least her thoughts (as one-sided as they were) were sometimes interesting. Her portions of the book were the most interesting to me.

As far as the Industrial Revolution goes, this book IS IMO too one-sided to be very impactful. The author is preaching to the choir (with me) when he criticizes the results of business ambitions. But I lost interest in the author's heavy-handed and one-sided railing against businessmen. I don't buy that things were all idyllic and thoughtful in America before the Industrial Revolution came along to make everything about money and 'progress'. I don't buy that things were so great (and spiritual and personal) when people worked long days in the fields. There is some truth in the author's railing against the Industrial Revolution, but the author shows no balance whatsoever in his observations.

I liked Winesburg Ohio (the collection of short stories written earlier by this same author) a whole lot. And this book contains that book's sensitivity to social awkwardness and inner purposelessness, but takes the 'negativity' to a whole new level. And it involves the abovementioned social commentary (whereas Winesburg is more personal). It is like the author's world view got a lot bleaker after he wrote Winesburg. Bleak can be OK, but not when it is this one-sided and disinteresting(one-dimensional).