Reviews for McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

The average rating for McTeague: A Story of San Francisco based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-10-04 00:00:00 Jeffrey Christopher In the 1890's in San Francisco, (now finally at peace ) on busy Polk Street, with cable cars continuously moving up and down the thoroughfare , not the most fashionable lane though, McTeague an unlicensed dentist, too dumb to know he needs this practices his profession learned from a quack in a filthy mining camp pulling teeth with his bare hands, big and strong as an ox and as smart as one too, his clients are clerks, shop girls and vendors the working poor of the area the rich people who live a couple of blocks away, go to another more able and with a certificate...McTeague, no other name is given has just one friend Marcus Schouler, an ambitious young man like the dentist, employed by a veterinarian with a little clinic, nearby ( he does have a license) shy old Grannis, who loves the retired dressmaker Miss Baker (these people all live in the same apartment building) the aged sweethearts, have adjoining rooms in fact but will not speak to each other, only like to listen to the sounds coming through the walls and opened doors, she's even more bashful than he. When Marcus brings his cousin, small charming almost beautiful but with pretty hair, Trina Sieppe from an immigrant German family, to fix her teeth, the quack falls in love, complications though, so does his only friend. McTeague proposes to Trina 20, in his tiny room also used as an dental office and the frightened girl runs away, yet does come back. Later telling his friend the amazed Mr. Shouler, who magnanimously lets him take the woman he wanted to marry a real pal, still will regret always his hasty decision...Trina wins $5,000 in an illegal lottery that she reluctantly bought a ticket , from the pushy seller for a dollar to the chagrin of Marcus. After the odd couple's marriage her family moves to Los Angeles, alone she invest her money with a rich uncle, becomes a miser taking out the gold coins to adore and feel, that she has left or saved, every day just to look at. This causes great irritation you can imagine to her husband, they live so cheaply almost like beggars. Domestic violence ensues, McTeague leaves and steals the hidden money...This not quite respectful novel, and was condemned by contemporary reviewers for its coarseness, vulgarity and killings in 1899, very unsettling even by modern standards if there are any, it is not a pleasant read, a minor American classic which shows the evils ways some people act in the face of dire, crushing, horrendous poverty...However a gripping story, with a terrific finale of a man who will not be stopped, his feeble mind tells him what to pursue, anything he wants is his ...all he has to do is grasp in his powerful hands.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-09-27 00:00:00 Mark A Helsing This is one of those chunky "classics" that not a lot of people have heard of. Frank Norris only wrote a few novels, with the most famous being, The Octopus: A Story of California, one of those books that rails against social injustice, with its target - evil, railroad barons. MUWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (I can do this all day) MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Norris was one of those turn-of-the-century writers, like Jack London, who liked to get down and dirty and live among the people he was writing about - miners, stevedores, shopkeepers, hookers - so, it's not a surprise that he lived fast and hard and died young - leaving a pox ridden corpse. One of the reasons this book endures is probably because Eric von Stroheim made an excessively long (around eight hours) silent movie called Greed, based on the book. The making of the film seems to be a terrific story unto itself, but suffice it say that von Stroheim was a tad bit over-the-top in his love of the book (gifs from the film pepper this review). Greed is the name of the game and with apologies to Gordon Gekko, it's anything but a positive trait. Norris followed the Emile Zola School of Naturalism, which was all for getting reality on paper, but it favored less than fun stuff - misery, poverty, vice, violence, racism. Norris also studied at the School of Determinism, which said that whatever traits you were born with, there's pretty much no escape. So if you have Swiss-German blood (the female protagonist), you'll be predisposed to be miserly with your accumulated riches or if daddy was a drunken, idiotic ne'er-do-well (McTeague), you're screwed. A sort-of non-spoilerish summary: McTeague is a big, slow-witted (Norris likes to often use the words like "stupid" and "idiot" to describe the big lug) dentist, who falls in love with Trina, who's kind of cute and has a big, head of raven-colored hair. They get engaged. She hits the lottery for $5000. Marcus, McTeague's bestest pal, who originally had a thing for her and set them up, gets jealous because he could have had the money (Hi there, Mr. Greed). McTeague and his pal wrestle at a picnic, it goes too far, Marcus pulls a Mike Tyson and bites McTeague's ear and McTeague does a "brainbuster" on him in retaliation and now they're not pals anymore, but bitter enemies. McTeague and Trina get married, but she doesn't want to spend any of her lottery money because she's a Swiss-German miser (Hey, Greed), which works out okay until the San Fransiscan Dental board say that McTeague can't be a dentist anymore because the Three Stooges School of Dentistry does not in fact exist. From there, things devolve in a rather quick, bloody and ham-fisted way. More stuff: You can't talk about greed without rolling out the obligatory Jewish character and the formulaic anti-Semitic garbage. It seems that drinking steam beer (Mmmm beer) and putting billiard balls in your mouth was the height of jackassary back in the day. Rolling around in bed, naked, with your gold pieces is pretty smexy. Unless you're a dude… This is a grim book with little humor and no one comes out unscathed and I was wavering between 3 and 4 stars but the last fifth of the book solidified the rating. With some stunning literary imagery and a perfect ending, it proved that no matter where you go - from the big city to the desert - you're always alone with your conscience - your greedy, pre-determined conscience.