Despite its terrible windiness, this is a brilliant look at the criminal psyche, surpassing even Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. ( )

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It's easy to dismiss this novel as an antique curiosity, with its clunky, humorless prose and its turgid plot. Dreiser is the kind of author that tells you everything you need to know about his characters before they do anything. He breaks the primary rule of fiction writing by telling rather than showing. And he does so at length. In fact, he dwells on the occasional advancements in his plot for whole chapters, with the result that the novel repeats itself. Worse, he allows himself melodramatic forays into interior monologue, which lead to passages like, "But why? Why? Why?" Viewed by modern standards of reading, shaped in part by the Hemingway school of spare storytelling, Dreiser's work is at best primitive and, at worst, boring. In short, this is not a page-turner.

Still, buried inside this novel's critique of wealth and privilege and social inequity and organized religion is an ambiguity that belies Dreiser's tendency to tell rather than show. Clyde Griffiths's arrest for the murder of Roberta Alden at first seems to be the climax of the novel. But there are still dozens of chapters left. The lengthy descriptions of Clyde's trial and its aftermath feel like a case of beating a dead horse. But as I trudged on I forced myself to push past this reading. Instead, I found myself thinking about the title and the notion that there is something peculiarly American about the tragedy of Clyde Griffiths, whose ambition to escape his poor, religious upbringing is framed by his desire for nice clothes and a large house like the one his wealthy uncle inhabits in Lycurgus. Clyde spends the first half of the novel ignored, neglected or misunderstood. His tragic fate, at first, seems to be invisibility. But then he gains national attention (and inspires national disgust) when he is accused of murder. As perceived by the public that so swiftly condemns him, Clyde's tragedy is not merely his moral bankruptcy, but his brazen attempt to duck out of responsibility and obtain a social status he had no right to claim. By prolonging the agony of both Clyde and the reader in the novel's final chapters chapters, it seems to me that Dreiser begs the reader to consider tragedy and to draw his or her own conclusions about fate. ( )

The story is about Clyde who lived with a poor family. He didn't like his life and tried to get money and become happier, but unfortunately when he had some money he lost everything. It is a good story , because it explains that money is not every thing and that people should take care about their families not only their friends
Ali musalam mli 3/A ( )

Clyde Griffiths - trapped between worlds. Though flush with raw ability, his ambition is much greater than the station in life to which he was born. Clyde's sad life begins on the streets, helping his fundamentalist family attmept to spread their version of the gospel, busking hymns and homilies. He grows to hate what his family stands for as he watches the wealthy and the succesful walk by, condescending and aloof. Clyde, able to suppress his deisre for a life of money and fame and fortune no more, abandons his family and takes a job as a bellhop at a hotel that caters to the rich. His outside-in view of the upper class only reinforces his belief that, if he could match his talents to a class standing equal to his dreams, he would staisfy his every desire. Running with the fast crowd, exposing himself to every pleasure and vice, Clyde is eventually caught up in a terrible accident and, rather than face the consequences, he runs, exhibiting a weakness of will and moral fiber that will define the rest of his tragic life.

After a short exile into workaday life, Clyde lands on his feet again, connecting with an estranged uncle who is part of the social strata that he has always dreamed of accessing. Samuel Griffiths, the owner of a large shirt collar manufaturing plant, takes pity on Clyde and offers to give him a chance to work his way up in the company. Uncle Griffiths, though, is loathe to simply give Clyde the keys to the kingdom, worried that the boy's lack of education and meek social standing will reflect badly on his own family. So, Clyde is put to work in the company, his name offering him a taste of the treatment those born to wealth enjoy but he is never truly accepted by his uncle into the social class that matches their shared name. Clyde is again only able to view the world of money, favor, and ease from afar, invited to participate only as an amusement to some of the other young, rich family heirs.

Lonely and frustrated, Clyde turns to one of the pretty, female plant workers, Roberta Alden, for comfort and companionship. Trapped between the world he feels his name should place him in and the world his birth ties him to, Clyde refuses to engage in a normal and open relationship with Roberta, courting her in secret and eventually seducing her. When Roberta announces to him that she is pregnant and expects Clyde to marry her, he is faced with losing his tenuous foothold in the world of his family name. Clyde, frightened and desperate, kills Roberta, hoping to unbind himself from the shame and humiliation his connection to Roberta is sure to bring if exposed. Even in murder, though, Clyde is weak and unfocused, leaving a trail of evidence that easily identifies him as the killer.

Clyde is tried and convicted of the murder, judged by a group of simple, workaday people, primarily of the same social strata from which he so desperately tried to escape. His trial is a hearing not only on the crime but also on Clyde's empty ambition to achieve money and success and pleasure at any cost. His conviction is a comment on the unmoored desires of a society, eager for the life of entitlement without responsibility.

Dreiser's narrative is slow, detailed, and methodical. Though, every time the reader begins to grow impatient with the pastoral pace, Dreiser throws Clyde's life into chaos. Dreiser's plodding voice allows him to provide a complete and thorough review of Clyde's background and thought process in a way that is not typical of novels. By the time Clyde finally kills Roberta, his meandering thoughts and feelings have been examined to the point that the reader is almost as confused as Clyde himself about his murderous act. In the end, Dreiser's tempo and completeness are a positive, though they make the novel a bit long and difficult.

Another positive for Dreiser is his attention to detail and his ultra -realistic portrayal of both Clyde's crime and the investigation and prosecution that follows. Dreiser maintains an uncharacteristically good eye for the minutiae and subtlety of the crime investigation, interrogation, and the presentation of a case to a jury. Written in 1925, Dreiser's novel, though not your typical crime novel, is far ahead of its time. Modern crime writters would do well to read the last section of Dreiser's novel before they put pen to paper.

Some critics have claimed that Dreiser's novel was an attempt to convict the growing American consumer values and pleasure seeking without substance, focusing on Clyde's obssessive desires which are ultimately his undoing. While this explanation fits the novel, an alternate explanation is to see Clyde, his weak will and bankrupt moral sense, as the focus of Dreiser's disdain. The only difference in these explanations is who bears the ultimate responsibility for Clyde's make-up, society as whole or Clyde and his parents. I tend towards the later in viewing the book because it opens and closes with a scene describing Clyde's family in the midst of their religious mission. As you read about Clyde's parents and their Pharisaic piety, it seems equally empty as compared to the upper crust society toward which Clyde gravitates. Neither life or social strata ultimately has any value for Clyde and both contribute to his destruction.

Highly recommended!!!!
Four bones!!!! ( )