Reviews for An American Tragedy (Library of America)

The average rating for An American Tragedy (Library of America) based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2007-11-17 00:00:00 Rob Stein I remember reading this one, years ago, in a really bad flat in Mapperley Park. It was so horribly dusty all the time. That was because I never dusted. And when I looked out of my window I saw a wall. And when I looked out of my other window, I saw a different wall. Much like the hero of this brilliant novel - metaphorically speaking. And then, one day, in the wall, he notices a door. And he wants to open it and pass through to somewhere better. The very thing that other reviewers didn't like about this whopping novel was what made it another of my great reading experiences (which I remember like the memory of passing through something tremendous as if it was the Grand Canyon and not a novel at all) : they didn't like, but I did, the painful awful awe-full inevitability of the events, the doom of the characters, the dance of death we get drawn into for the last 200 pages - it's a quadrille, very formal, the partners are the characters, the plot, the author and ourselves, us, the readers. It's like a nightmare you can't wake up from. We know that, the characters know that, they're screaming, we're screaming, Dreiser has us caught in his fist of words and won't let us go until we know how it is that ordinary people can do terrible things which they never wanted to, they would have sold their souls not to, but they did.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-01-24 00:00:00 Miriam Tracey Wow! Quite an epic novel here! I can see why this one is a classic. At first, I was not sure how this one was going for me. As it is very long and hit a somewhat slow and repetitive patch about a third of the way through, I thought it was going to be 3 or 4 stars. But, with the way it was written, I was enthralled as it hit the midpoint and could not keep myself away from it until it was done. So, I am giving the slow and repetitive part a pass in this case and saying, without a doubt, that this is a 5-star book. You may see that I marked this as a legal drama. Unfortunately, that is a bit of a spoiler because it does not become that until about 2/3 of the way through. But, that is exactly what the first two thirds of the book is building up to. It is a commentary on society at the time the book was written: religion, social status, relationships, morals, crime, punishment, etc. etc. etc. It is all in here and it makes for quite a stew for the readers consumption. I think that this book that will certainly engage many and might infuriate some. The main character, Clyde, is such that you want to reach into the pages frequently, shake him, and yell,"WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?!?" But, no matter how you react to the story and the characters, it will leave you thinking about right vs wrong, decision making, justifying behavior to yourself, etc. I cannot say for sure that there is one definitive interpretation for the resolution of this book. I think it could possibly be interpreted a hundred different ways and they would all be correct. I am very thankful to have read this for a book club, because I am not sure if I would have ever picked it up otherwise. It is nice that groups of fellow readers help me find intriguing titles like this that will have me thinking for quite some time to come.