Matters of Honor

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 show more draws you in and stays with you. show less

I've read probably half a dozen Louis Begley novels, beginning with WARTIME LIES, followed by the first two SCHMIDT novels and a couple more. And I loved all of them. And now there's this one, MATTERS OF HONOR, which was, I thought, just okay. It reads like a kind of drawing room drama, the story of a friendship that begins between three college roommates at Harvard in the early fifties. And then we follow the progression of their lives over the next fifty years or so. The narrator, Sam Standish, becomes a rather successful author. Archie is a playboy drunk. And then there's Henry, hounded by an unspoken anti-Semitism throughout his wildly successful career as a lawyer of international law. And that's what the book is about, that show more prejudice that continues to exist, even today. Books of the time are mentioned, especially that bestseller about gentiles and Jews, GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT. And there are family secrets and problems between parents and children. The story lumbers along, year after year, decade after decade, bits of history join the plot. McCarthyism rears its ugly head. Kennedy is assassinated, etc. But nothing much ever really HAPPENS, ya know? The characters are great. Well developed, fully realized - or mostly. Sam may be gay, but it's never quite clear. Family and friends pass away. Sam and Henry get richer and richer. Ho-hum ...

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 show less

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 show more 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! show less

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.

Inane. Didn't finish.......