Reviews for The American Scene

The average rating for The American Scene based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-06 00:00:00 Lynn Bird I recall James in the Bowery as my favorite passage in all the H James I have read, and his account of touring the Berkshires in a car with Edith Wharton--or was that her account? Maybe. it's been nearly half a century since I've read either.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-07-31 00:00:00 Joseph Morales The candid reader, in confronting this narrative of temporary repatriation, and no less militant an attitude than confrontation will survive the persistently convoluted syntax of the book with wits intact, will find, apart from an often over-precious and even infantilizing tendency towards anthropomorphization, as if the book itself claims the same privilege of inanimate speech for its brethren that it alone truly enjoys, a wealth of jaundiced insight into the state of early 20th century America, delivered with such a euphemizing tone that that candid reader, if inattentive, might mistake this jeremiad for a harmless travelogue. All in all, James seems happy that he left, although I can't think it healthy for him or for America.