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Chargement... Matters of Honor (2007)par Louis Begley
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Interesting but too flat. Reads well but leaves you with no memorable impression. The writing style is too factual, like a business report or a diary. Just a load of babbling on the life of the Harvard upperclass socialites, where you can't even distinguish the decades as they pass by, so dull are the lifes of the four main characters and friends. Nevertheless, two stars on account of the true (and autobiographical) account of the jew that strives to become "non-jewish" but, in the end, fails. This is a sleeper of a novel. On the surface it is simply a tale of four post-WWII Harvard freshmen and their coming of age with typical life struggles in the arenas of career, family, and relationships. However, Begley's writing subtly draws the reader into a much bigger theme which is self-invention and re-invention. We meet Sam, our narrator whose parents were not up to snuff by many standards. We meet Archie, who is a burgeoning alcoholic who refuses to transform. We meet Margot who has it all and yet has nothing. We meet our very dear Henry, a Polish, Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, who is gifted in the area of re-invention. So, the novel resonates for anyone who has wanted to re-invent themselves, leaving behind those aspects of their identity which are distasteful, socially unacceptable, frightening, and/or which stand in the way of what we seek in life. There were a few sections which seemed to drag, perhaps not feeling quite necessary to the forward motion of the story, and the use of language was subtly powerful, but not exquisite enough for a 5 star rating. Very good novel! A very familiar story in some ways-a coming-of-age story among the privileged as old as Fitzgerald. Three Harvard roommates from very different backgrounds seek to reinvent themselves and to belong. It's the Fifties and Harvard is not a very admirable place-snobbish, anti-semitic, and small-minded. The story centers on the efforts of Polish-Jewish war refugee Henry to make it in the WASP world as observed by one of the roommates, Sam. This book is well-written and engaging, despite the rather dated setting. The main female character, who is the focus of Henry's ambitions, does not seem real-her decisions make little sense, or are at least not well-explained. There are some other odd plot and character choices. Still, this is a book that draws you in and stays with you. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Prix et récompenses
At Harvard in the early 1950s, three mismatched freshmen are thrown together as roommates--Sam, an aristocratic Yankee; Archie, an affable Army brat; and Henry, a Polish refugee--in the story of their college years and their unique friendship. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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Critics called MATTERS OF HONOR 'James-ian,' and it is, certainly. Which may be my problem. I never much cared for Henry James's fiction. So ... There's lots of international traveling - Paris figures prominently - with all the trappings of success prominently on display. Long dialogues about knotty problems of international law. (Begley is a lawyer.) But ... But enough of my complaining, I suppose. It's not really a bad book. I just didn't find it all that interesting in the end. Maybe I need to read that third SCHMIDT novel that I missed. That one I'll probably like. (three and a half stars)
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER ( )