Customer Reviews

Come and Get It (Prairie Classics)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is typical of an Edna Ferber novel--good details of the respective time period, but little insight or depth of characters. Half of the novel concerns Barney Glasgow, a poor child of immigrants who grows up in the lumberjack world. Determined never to be poor again, he sets his sights on becoming a wealthy man in the lumber industry. With the aid of his boss, Hewitt, he circumvents the law in taking land that in his opinion screams "Come and get it". His ambition causes him to sacrifice his love for a woman, a saloon singer and ex-prostitute nine years his senior named Lotta Morgan. Instead, he marries his boss' spinster daughter to gain partnership and inherit his boss' business. He gets his comeuppance thirty years later when he falls for the very beautiful granddaughter of the woman he loved (who eventually married his best friend Swan Bostrom). Lotta Lindbeck is eighteen, smart and has the same ruthless ambition as Barney. She entices Barney, who lavishes his wealth on her, but she also sees Barney's grown son, Bernie, on the side. She chooses Bernie over his father and marries him, when Barney and other members of his family die in an accident. The next half of the book describes Lotta's life as a socialite. It gives good detail on what was considered luxury then and the commonfolk's lifestyle in Wisconsin.

The book loses momentum as it solely describes Lotta's life with Bernie and doesn't bother with creating tension or describing the feelings or psychology of its characters. The film by the same name ends with the scene when Lotta disses Barney and leaves with Bernie, which was appropriate, since filming the second half of the book would've been pointless and would've made the audience drowsy. Ferber should've made the book center on one character, and eliminated the chapters detailing the lifstyles of the rich and famous during the turn-of-the-century. The book was about Barney and she should've focused her attention on him (Lotta was a dull frivolous character). The point of it is, afterall, about how being blindly ambitious in attaining one's goal, by sacrificing personal happiness can cause regrets later in life, when the advantages of being young are gone.

P.S. In case you saw the movie or plan to see it, Lotta Lindbeck is named Lotta Bostrom, and she is less innocent and more calculating in the book. Lotta Morgan, her grandmother, was no great beauty. And Kari Lindbeck, Lotta's mother, is portrayed as Lotta's aunt. I guess the producers wanted to narrow the age difference between Lotta and Barney and thus made Lotta as Lotta Morgan's daughter. The film claims Barney was 50 when he meets the teenage Lotta, but in the book he's actually 57. The film was great, with Frances Farmer playing the two Lottas. She fits the physical description of Lotta Bostrom (Lindbeck) perfectly.

This book is typical of an Edna Ferber novel--good details of the respective time period, but little insight or depth of characters. Half of the novel concerns Barney Glasgow, a poor child of immigrants who grows up in the lumberjack world. Determined never to be poor again, he sets his sights on becoming a wealthy man in the lumber industry. With the aid of his boss, Hewitt, he circumvents the law in taking land that in his opinion screams "Come and get it". His ambition causes him to sacrifice his love for a woman, a saloon singer and ex-prostitute nine years his senior named Lotta Morgan. Instead, he marries his boss' spinster daughter to gain partnership and inherit his boss' business. He gets his comeuppance thirty years later when he falls for the very beautiful granddaughter of the woman he loved (who eventually married his best friend Swan Bostrom). Lotta Lindbeck is eighteen, smart and has the same ruthless ambition as Barney. She entices Barney, who lavishes his wealth on her, but she also sees Barney's grown son, Bernie, on the side. She chooses Bernie over his father and marries him, when Barney and other members of his family die in an accident. The next half of the book describes Lotta's life as a socialite. It gives good detail on what was considered luxury then and the commonfolk's lifestyle in Wisconsin.

The book loses momentum as it solely describes Lotta's life with Bernie and doesn't bother with creating tension or describing the feelings or psychology of its characters. The film by the same name ends with the scene when Lotta disses Barney and leaves with Bernie, which was appropriate, since filming the second half of the book would've been pointless and would've made the audience drowsy. Ferber should've made the book center on one character, and eliminated the chapters detailing the lifstyles of the rich and famous during the turn-of-the-century. The book was about Barney and she should've focused her attention on him (Lotta was a dull frivolous character). The point of it is, afterall, about how being blindly ambitious in attaining one's goal, by sacrificing personal happiness can cause regrets later in life, when the advantages of being young are gone.

P.S. In case you saw the movie or plan to see it, Lotta Lindbeck is named Lotta Bostrom, and she is less innocent and more calculating in the book. Lotta Morgan, her grandmother, was no great beauty. And Kari Lindbeck, Lotta's mother, is portrayed as Lotta's aunt. I guess the producers wanted to narrow the age difference between Lotta and Barney and thus made Lotta as Lotta Morgan's daughter. The film claims Barney was 50 when he meets the teenage Lotta, but in the book he's actually 57. The film was great, with Frances Farmer playing the two Lottas. She fits the physical description of Lotta Bostrom (Lindbeck) perfectly.