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Title: Studs Lonigan: A Trilogy Comprising Young Lonigan, the Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and Judgement Day (Penguin Classics) by James T. Farrell, Ann Douglas ISBN: 0-14-118673-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 30 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.42 (24 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Studs Yawn-again
Comment: An aimless work of stark realism, "Studs Lonigan" has the distinction of being one of the earliest Irish American bildungsromans, a trilogy of novels covering the later half of its title character's life from his grammar school graduation in 1916 to his ignominious death in the depths of the Great Depression. In between there's a lot of drinking, fighting, singing, grumbling, praying, implied swearing and sexual activity, bad prose, and not much else.
William "Studs" Lonigan is an archetypal boy growing up in a tough working-class Irish neighborhood in Chicago's south side. The oldest of four children, Studs is a lazy student and, despite his mother's wish for him to enter the priesthood, flounders in high school and wastes his time hanging out in poolrooms and getting in scraps, ultimately going to work for his father's painting company. Farrell successfully turns the Chicago neighborhoods into interesting fictional settings, but he never manages to elevate Studs and his boorish friends above the flatness and dullness of negative stereotypes.
Farrell paints a candid, savage portrait of racism and bigotry in the Irish American enclave. There is a genuine fear of blacks moving into and taking over their neighborhoods, and a distrust of Jews as real estate agents who are orchestrating this migration and as "international bankers" who have sunk America into its Depression. To be fair, these sentiments are not unanimous among the Irish characters in the book, but they constitute a world view expressed by Studs's financially embattled father and shared by many sympathizers.
The book's prose matches its protagonist: simple, gritty, and slovenly. Farrell writes in the third person, but the voice is Studs's; the young man's thoughts concerning life, love, and sex are of the most basic. The third novel of the trilogy, "Judgment Day," is the best, in which the writing matures with Studs as he becomes engaged to a nice girl, worries about his weak heart and his inability to stop smoking, and struggles to find lucrative work during the draconian economic times. Here the book also achieves a sort of dramatic crescendo, as general anxiety about the Depression, panic over closing banks and plunging stocks, and paranoia over "Reds" combine with the ominous state of Studs's health in a nightmare of Dreiseresque misery.
The book has some fine passages, but my overall opinion is lukewarm at best. The simplistic prose, although maybe a stylistic necessity, is no fun when it is used at such length to document a life as uneventful as Studs's; given the clownishness of the violent scenes, at times it's like reading a comic book without the pictures. The book doesn't seem to have any purpose other than to introduce an Irish milieu into the American literary canon -- it certainly doesn't bother to give Studs's life any purpose -- and that just isn't enough to sustain a 900-page novel.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent
Comment: Not since Dreiser's, "An American Tragedy", have I read a book that described the spiritual depravity of teen age youth and the ignorance that accompanies it. Farrell's masterpiece made the top 100 for this century at #29 and certainly deserves its place there.
The book is actually three shorter books combined into one massive saga about a young man named Bill "Studs" Lonigan. Studs is a Catholic, Irish-American who lives in the rough and tumble neighborhood of Chicago during the early portion of this century. The story starts off with Studs being 15 and thinking he knows everything and willing to prove it with his fists. Dropping out of high school to hang around a pool room, he and his friends primarily engage in fights, drinking and picking up women.
Studs is the leader of his friends and always feels the need to prove himself by fighting and out drinking them. Despite hearing lectures from his priest about the dangers of drink and sex, he continues to engage in these activities. However, time takes it toll on Studs's health. By 1930, the Depression and his failing health (from his activities in his 20's) force him to realize that he isn't the man who used to be.
Farrell depicts the turbulent times perfectly. The reader is draw into the descriptions and accounts of Chicago at the end of the first World War, the socialist movement, the rise in popularity of Sinclair Lewis, and many other events. The roaring 20's are also written about and the reader is taken through gambling halls, speakeasies, and whore houses. Farrell paints a very bleak picture of the Depression as well.
While there doesn't seem to be many answers in the book, it does depict that ignorance and a lack of spirituality wreaks havoc upon lives. While it is one thing to have religious rules and regulations, it is another to live them. The reader can be intimidated by the page count, but it is well worth reading. It easily made my list for one of the 10 best books I've read in my lifetime.
Rating: 5
Summary: Character Development at its Finest
Comment: If you are looking for a plot driven story, then this may not satisfy. However, if you do not approach the story with the same kind of expectations you might bring to a work of popular fiction, Farrell maintains a high level of interest. I believe Studs Lonigan is one of the most developed characters in twentieth century American fiction. I am especially impressed that this depiction comes across so strongly without the aid of contrived catastrophes that land on the character from out of the blue. Although Studs is affected by his environment, it is still possible to trace the turns his life takes to sources within his own personality. These sources determine him as often as they are determined by him. I found him to be neither beneath nor above me. I can't say the book is exciting so much as extremely moving. Either way, I was turning the pages late into the night.Definately a book I will remember all my life.
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Title: The American Irish : A History by Kevin Kenny ISBN: 0582278171 Publisher: Pearson Longman Pub. Date: 27 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: Chicago Stories (Prairie State Books) by James T. Farrell, Charles Fanning ISBN: 0252019814 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, Richard Lingeman ISBN: 0451527704 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: 08 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Appointment in Samarra : A Novel by John O'Hara ISBN: 0375719202 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: John Dos Passos : U.S.A. : The 42nd Parallel / 1919 / The Big Money (Library of America) by Townsend Ludington, Daniel Aaron, John R. Dos Passos ISBN: 1883011140 Publisher: Library of America Pub. Date: August, 1996 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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