Laughing Boy — 1930 Winner

Laughing Boy is a story about the title character, a Navajo Indian trying to build his family in the southwest. He falls in love with Slim Girl, a young woman who was raised in a white mission school. Laughing Boy is idealistic and artistic, loving Slim Girl no matter what and immediately marries her.

Most of her life, Slim Girl has seen how whites have taken advantage of Indians. Full of bitterness and fueled by the desire for revenge, she becomes the mistress of a white farmer, taking his money and saving it up for herself. When she marries Laughing Boy, an artist who deeply values his Native American roots, she continues in her affair, saving her money so she and Laughing Boy can have the life they want.

They do find happiness, but eventually Slim Girl’s secret comes out. Laughing Boy decides to stay with her, and together they begin to move north, away from town, with their money to be free from Slim Girl’s past. However, on their way, another man (who loved and hated Slim Girl) shoots at them and Slim Girl is killed. Laughing Boy continues on his journey north, mourning her and seeking his family where he hopes to find peace.

This was another short book but very interesting. It was perhaps one of the first stories from a Native American’s perspective and unique in the way it treated Americans, sympathizing with the minority group over the whites. It was a great story overall. What I found also interesting was that it won the Pulitzer Prize the year after Scarlet Sister Mary did, indicating that the prizes were being awarded to books with non-white characters and books that didn’t show their protagonists in the best light. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trends continue as the prizes are awarded.

 

Scarlet Sister Mary — 1929 Winner

Scarlet Sister Mary tells the story of Mary, a black (specifically Gullah) woman living in South Carolina. Mary wants to be good, be a member of the church, and a Christian. But Mary also loves to dance and wants to get married. She does, quickly becomes pregnant, and her husband leaves her. Mary continues to sleep with men, having multiple children, and struggling with her desire to be a good-standing member of the church and community while being a loose woman.

The story was short and Mary’s character was interesting in her struggle, but the story didn’t strike me as lasting. I also wasn’t quite sure what the author was saying about race, gender roles, and how the church fit in to that. As a historical piece, the novel has quite a place as the beginning of the recorded history of single mothers with multiple baby daddies! It also felt something like Mary was an Eve-figure as the mother of so many children. Again, not quite sure what the implications of the story are, but it was still an interesting and quick read.

 

Early Autumn — 1927 Winner

Early Autumn is a novel by Louis Bromfield about the Pentland family, specifically Olivia who married into the family. Olivia is almost 40, on the edge of the autumn of her life, in a loveless marriage (her husband spends his time writing the family’s genealogical tome), and tending the Pentland estate alongside her father-in-law, John, who is in love with another woman but stays married to his insane wife out of duty.

Olivia looks at her beautiful daughter Sybil who is in the spring and summer of her life. The book is set in the summer and many images are used to enhance the novel’s title, recognizing that the time for love happens in the summer of one’s life but that soon, middle age (aka autumn) catches us.

During the story, Sybil falls in love with a boy visiting from France who doesn’t know his father (a no-no for the Pentland family) and Olivia begins spending time with an Irish immigrant named Michael O’Hara who has come into great political power. O’Hara wants Olivia to run away with him and she wants to, but in the end, she decides not to because John Pentland has died and left her (not his son) as the heir of the Pentland estate. Olivia realizes she needs to let her daughter Sybil marry for love and use her new position to help move the family into the future. Olivia also discovers (through a moment of clarity from her insane mother-in-law) that the Pentland family’s cherished past is a sham; their ancestor was also a bastard child who reinvented himself when he came to America. Olivia sees the hypocrisy of her family, but determines she will change their future for her daughter.

The story reminded me of Age of Innocence in many ways, though it was not quite as moving. I did really like it though and this would be a book worth reading!

 

Arrowsmith –1926 Winner

Arrowsmith is a novel by Sinclair Lewis about Martin Arrowsmith, a young man passionately devoted to science and medicine. It was a little long and didn’t have a lot of action to it. There is school and love and research and eventually, the loss of his wife to malaria in a remote country. I liked the character, but did find him often selfish, neglecting all else in his pursuit of research. His wife knew what she married in to, but it was still frustrating to see their marriage self-destruct and to see his interest in a younger woman.

There is something to respect about the literary value of the novel, but I wouldn’t read it again and I doubt most people would appreciate it.

 

So Big — 1925 Winner

I really did like this book by Edna Ferber about a woman named Salina marrying into a Dutch community in the midwest. Salina is a woman who values art and beauty and befriends Roelf, a budding artist who she encourages to pursue his dreams and develop his talent.

Later, she marries, has a son, her husband dies, and she sacrifices her wants to give her son a good life. Her son Dirk ends up somewhat spoiled, but later realizes all his mother has given him.

A great hard-working, turn-of-the-century story in the vein of The Magnificent Ambersons or Alice Adams.

 

The Bridge of San Luis Rey — 1928 Winner

Sad to say I read this book too long ago and didn’t review it soon enough to really do it justice here. So instead I’ll just give it a Read It rating. Some people might want to Buy It, but the voice was more formal which may make it more difficult for some.

 

One of Ours — 1923 Winner

I’m only lonely on the inside
Didn’t mean to take away your dreams
I’m only lonely on the inside
When you close your eyes to your deepest thoughts
What do you see? -Hootie and the Blowfish

To be honest, initially it was very hard for me to get into One of Ours by Willa Cather. In fact, it was the third time I started that I finally “got” it. And then, I loved it! Though it does start a bit slow, One of Ours is a semi-tragedy that focuses on an idealist 20-something named Claude Wheeler. Claude grows up in a farming community in Nebraska, longing for education, meaning, and adventure in his life. However, with an often rude father (who thinks he is funny) and a religious mother, Claude’s beauty-loving, melancholy side is never truly cultivated. Early in the book, Cather describes Claude as someone

not so much afraid of loneliness as he is of accepting cheap substitutes…of waking up some morning to find himself admiring a girl merely because she is accessible. He has a dread of easy compromises…

As with all tragedies, Claude’s downfall comes from his own fears. He wants an education, longs for a family and friends that understand him, and for meaning beyond the day-to-day monotony of farm life. But he is paralyzed to make any of those things happen because he fears making the wrong decision. As his father expands their farm, Claude is called home from school to work the land. He tries to make the most of it, choosing to pursue the kind and sweet Enid over the emotional, interesting Gladys. His married life also leaves much to be desired as Enid would rather cultivate a relationship with missions work and a minister than her own husband. In another beautiful passage that forshadows Claude’s marriage, Cather describes a bird that gets caught in the upper room of the couple’s house:

…a bird flew in and fluttered wildly about among the partitions, shrieking with fright before it darted out into the dusk through one of the upper windows and found its way to freedom.

As World War I breaks out, Enid travels to China and Claude finds himself drawn to Europe, wanting to find a way to protect his country and fight for a true ideal.

Themes
IDEALISM — Throughout Claude’s life, he is pulled from one ideal to the next. He longs for education, connection with family, meaning among friends, productivity in farming, love in his marriage, and hope in spite of war. In nearly every (or some would argue every) situation, Claude’s ideals are much too high. They cannot be met, and he is left disappointed and disillusioned with the world around him.

GROWING UP — Claude is forced to become a man but he struggles with the man he wants to be and who he believes he is. He feels physically uncoordinated and socially awkward. But from the perspective of those around him, he is a successful farmer, a good man (though somewhat curtailed by his wife), and he cuts a strong, impressive figure in uniform. Not until Claude is able to find connection with his ideals does he really grow into his masculinity.

WAR and PATRIOTISM — When WWI begins, the Wheelers hope it won’t touch America. But eventually, Claude decides to join the army and do something to help the Allies. As the ship of young soldiers leaves New York for France, Cather writes, “the scene was ageless; youths were sailing away to die for an idea, a sentiment, for the mere sound of a phrase.” Cather creates a sharp tension between the ideas the soldiers are so quick to fight and die for with the reality that most boys cannot even articulate these ideals. Later, Claude begins to feel that Americans are often people of shallow emotions. However, the light in the eyes of a young French boy reignites Claude’s own ideals. He reminds himself that ideals are “not archaic things, beautiful and impotent; they [are] the real sources of power among men.” This belief empowers Claude to lead his soldiers and bravely fight for the Allies.

My Take: LIBRARY
I ended up loving this book because I could relate to Claude in many ways. I often find myself optimistic, only to eventually see through the ideal I’ve held up to the light. Claude reminds me that I can enjoy the beauty around me and find hope in simple things: quail nests hidden deep in the woods, listening to a mother read a timeless story, the growth of trees amidst the tragedies of war, the light in a child’s eye when they see someone fighting for what is right and good. The book maintains many elements of a tragedy, but I contend that Claude is a hero in the end because he is able to find peace within himself.

 

His Family — 1918 Winner

“All of the people around us they say, Can they be that close?
Just let me state for the record, we’re giving love in a family dose.
…We are family! I got all my sisters with me…”

His Family by Ernest Poole was the first Pulitzer prize winning novel. The steadily-paced story is about the life of Roger Gale, a 60-some year old widower, and his three daughters: Edith, Deborah, and Laura. The book is set in New York City in the 1910′s and especially centers on the changes Roger feels and sees happening in his life and his family. Sometimes detached, sometimes involved, he watches the lives of his daughters who all embody different responses to turn of the century concerns.

Edith is married with five children and consumed with her family. Her husband Bruce is a very involved businessman who eventually buys a car, a fact that concerns Edith and Roger. Her children are her whole world though they haven’t inherited their mother’s insular perspective.

Deborah is single for the majority of the book and is a principal of a large tenement school. Her school is her family and she works tirelessly to protect and provide for them. Though a modern woman in many respects, Deborah also struggles with how to balance her passion for education and modernity with her desire to be married to a man she loves. Deborah is Roger’s favorite daughter and the story largely centers on her.

Laura, the youngest, represents the modern woman. Married on a whim, involved in women’s suffrage because it’s trendy, always fashionable, full of liberal thoughts about love, divorce, and family. Roger, Edith, and Deborah spend many hours worrying about Laura and her selfish actions.

In truth, the story is not filled with much action, but simply profiles the life of the Gale family.

Themes
FAMILY — Over and over again, Roger remembers something his wife told him before she died: “You will live on in the lives of our children.” Roger regrets that it’s not until later in life that he begins to be involved in his daughters’ lives. He sees himself in each of them both for good and bad. Edith’s family is her whole world to a fault. She is unable to connect to the changing world around her. Deborah’s family is her school. She devotes herself to them heart and soul, even risking her own health. She is so tied to this larger family that it limits her ability to start a family of her own. Laura’s family is more about herself with her siblings and husband(s) in the background. Family, or her menage, exists for pleasure.

CHANGE — From the beginning of the novel, Roger feels a great tension between the NYC of the past – small and manageable – with the NYC of the present – growing, teaming, noisy tenements; brash, dangerous automobiles; late-night dances and new fashions. He understands parts of himself are in the children around him, but he also misses the morals and simplicity of the past. Standing at the beginning of a new century, Roger often feels paralyzed to move forward and uncertain of the future.

MODERNISM –The movement forward in education, inventions, global communications, politics, war, medicine, and business is very obvious in His Family. Roger and his daughters are all players in the modern world. Edith is an unwilling participant, though her children through their career aspirations and husband with his love of automobiles are. Deborah is progressively involved with education. Laura appreciates the modern view of marriage, but largely for selfish reasons. Roger watches to see how he can be involved or where he should pull in the reins.

My Take: LIBRARY
I did enjoy this book though the pacing was fairly slow. I found the concerns, tensions, and fears related in it to be fascinating. There was so much happening at the turn of the century — cars, politics, war, education, etc. The excitement of change is evident in the book. However, the faster pace of the modern era was missing. Overall, it was a great story of the Gale family, though the lack of action and slow movement may cause some readers to avoid it.

 

Alice Adams — 1922 winner

“When all eyes have turned aside
They used to talk to you
And people on the streets seem to disapprove
So you keep moving away” — The Weepies, “Little Bird”

Booth Tarkington’s second Pulitzer-winner is Alice Adams. The novel tells the story of Alice, a bright, fun girl who lives at the turn of the century and, like most girls in their early 20′s, is trying to find a husband. Alice’s mother is very concerned with keeping up appearances and is often saddened that their middle-class income cannot help Alice compete with the wealthy girls in town. Alice was once one of the most desired girls in town, but as time has passed, the number of interested males has dropped off. The fall from approval and limited financial resources don’t stop Alice from trying to model her second-hand clothes after cutting edge fashion, flirting in very calculated ways, and holding her head up high at high society parties.

Alice’s father works at a local factory, Lamb & Company, but is constantly goaded by Mrs. Adams to quit his job and start a glue factory where he can make more money for the family. However, Mr. Adams has moral reservations about using the recipe for glue because he developed it while working at another company.

Meanwhile, Alice meets and holds the attention of a young man named Arthur Russell. Though Arthur is in town to visit another young woman, he becomes interested in Alice. As he begins to court her, Mr. Adams rationalizes his right to start his new business, momentarily quieting his wife. Unfortunatly, Alice’s younger brother Walter also gets himself in trouble at work. Then Lamb & Company start their own glue division, and an attempt at having Walter over for dinner doesn’t go as planned.  Alice suddenly finds herself spinning too many plates. One by one, things begin to spiral out of control, leaving her uncertain how she, a young woman, will be able to adapt in society.

Themes
MONEY and SOCIETY — The story is another example of books in the early 1900′s that deal with class issues. The Adams family is middle-class, so they have a comfortable life. But they are unable to keep up with the Jones, er the Lambs, and other high society families. In this story, Tarkington shows how this greed works to their detriment. Is he condemning the upper class? Or condemning the class system that is rigid even in America?

RIGHT and WRONG — Mr. Adams struggles with intellectual copyright issues. Is the glue recipe his? Or his company’s since he developed it for them? Mrs. Adams uses deception to try to make it appear as though her family has more money than they do. But she does it to help Alice find a husband and a life. Is she right to do so?

ROMANCE and REALITY — Early in the story, Alice paints a picture of herself the way society wants to see her. She wears the right clothes, flirts at the precise moment but without seduction, and develops a persona that draws men to her side. But she eventually learns through her relationship with Arthur that what attracts someone to her is not what she expected. If romance fails, what are her realistic options as a 22-year-old woman in the 1900′s?

My Take: BUY IT
I enjoyed this book quite a bit too. I suspected I would appreciate the writing style since I loved Tarkington’s The Magnificent Ambersons, and I was right. The story started a little slow, but as it quickly developed, I loved reading about Alice. Though the story takes place perhaps over the course of one year (her 22nd), she transforms from a giddy teenager to a practical, realistic young woman who has discovered how she must take control over her own life.

 

The Age of Innocence — 1921 winner

“Now when you work it out I’m worse than you.
Yeah when you work it out, I want it too
Now when you work out where to draw the line.
Your guess is as good as mine.” -Coldplay

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton is an incredibly moving story of a man who is torn between following society’s expectations of him in regards to marriage and the women he feels compelled to love. Newland Archer is a young man who is courting May Welland, a sweet, beautiful girl. One who is accepted by society. On the eve of his engagement to May, her cousin Countess Ellen Olenska returns to New York City amidst much gossip. Ellen is a married woman with a husband left in Europe. Whether abusive, unfaithful, or something else, no one quite knows, but it doesn’t matter what his sins are. To society, all that matters is what is to become of Ellen in New York.

Archer feels particularly torn because he and Ellen were childhood friends. Now, as an adult, he finds himself drawn into contact with her initially for May’s sake, then for his own. Ellen’s ability to flaunt the rules and her her flippant attitude towards society’s view of her intrigues Archer. He begins to doubt his “ideal” relationship with May and spends more time with Ellen.

Archer and May marry and he tries to move on from Ellen but he finds himself frequently crossing paths with her — accidentally and intentionally. His marriage and life feel empty and false while she is real and full. His desire to remain faithful to his wife and society’s expectations of him are in such tension with his desire to live as he wants. The final chapters (and more so, the final scene) that unfold and show the complexities of love and duty are simply beautiful and stunningly heartbreaking.

Themes
FATE vs. free will (destiny vs. longing) — Archer feels torn between what he is fated to do (what society expects) and how he wants to use his free will. Throughout the book, this tension is directly and indirectly addressed. Later in the book, Archer, now an old man, reflects on the younger generation, “The difference is these young people take it for granted that they’re going to get whatever they want, and that we almost always took it for granted that we shouldn’t. Only, I wonder—the thing one’s so certain of in advance: can it ever make one’s heart beat as wildly?” And later, “The boy was not insensitive, he knew; but he had the facility and self-confidence that came of looking at fate not as a master but as an equal.”

MARRIAGE of convenience vs. Marriage of love — The class system was alive and well in the 1870′s, the story’s setting. Archer feels this as he struggles between the idea of a marriage of convenience (with May) and a marriage of love (with Ellen). Closely tied in with the theme of fate vs. free will, Archer lives in constant turmoil as both his options seem impossible.

SOCIETY: Men’s and women’s roles — The impact of society was enormous. Archer, May, and Ellen are all at its mercy. Archer feels pressured to marry, establish a home, provide, and have a job. May is to marry, have children, and raise them well. Ellen is a married woman living away from her husband and the object of much gossip as she tries to break out of traditional concepts of femininity.

“[Gossip] was the old New York way of taking life ‘without effusion of blood’: the way of people who dreaded scandal more than disease, who placed decency above courage, and who considered that nothing was more ill-bred than ‘scenes,’ except the behaviour of those who gave rise to them. As these thoughts succeeded each other in his mind Archer felt like a prisoner in the centre of an armed camp.”

My Take: BUY IT
I LOVED this book. The desire to find true love and stay true to one’s self, yet not wanting to hurt those you love. It was one of the most moving books I’ve read in a long time. Plus, Wharton’s writing style is fantastic. She has such a way with words. She describes an extremely overweight woman whose face was covered with flesh “like a flood of lava on a doomed city” so that “in the centre of which the traces of a small face survived as if awaiting excavation.” Humorous, moving, simply amazing!