Customer Reviews

Journey in the Dark

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This is a terrific novel about Sam Braden, from childhood to old age. Sam is born into a poor family in the midwest, quits school at 15 to work in a store, moves into telegraphy, then the wallpaper business, and finally owns his own investment company. He is ambitious and smart and knows how to make a dollar. He is also a good person. But he is not perfect - he marries the wrong woman at first, a woman who loves someone else - and he fails with a close friend and his son. It's a totally engrossing novel (except for maybe the last 40 pages, which drag - as if Flavin didn't know how or want to end it). It won the Pulitzer Prize and deservedly so. Read it and enjoy.

This is the story of the Braden family from fictional Wyattville overlooking the Mississippi River in Iowa. Sam Braden is the youngest of Jim and Sarah Branden and is destined to make a mark in the world. He is lucky in everything except love. As the story unfolds we are given glimpses into the lives of his brother Tom and sisters, Madge and Nelly. Tom is a wayward sort who eventually gets shot in a poker game. Madge lives out her days as an embittered old maid. Nelly who has some musical talent becomes star struck, runs off with the lead in a traveling theater group and eventually admitted to "care" at a mental institution. Except for his misguided and usually unfortunate relationships with women, Sam does well in the world. First, he works as a dependable worker in local store in Wyattsville. Next, he becomes a telegraph operator with the railroad. Eventually by pluck and good luck he comes into his own as a businessman. He spends much of his youthful energy pining for Eileen Wyatt. He eventually marries Eileen but it is a disasterous relationship beginning with a honeymoon gone wrong and only gets worse. Along the way Sam goes to Officer Candidate School in preparation for WWI. The sinking of the Titanic is chronicled. Sam gets lucky and doesn't lose in the market crash of 1929. The story ends with the tragic death of Sam's son in an air sortie during WWII.

The story is told in an unusual format. Each chapter begins with a conclusion to events then goes on to fill in the details. A most intriguing approach to story telling.