From Library Journal
Experienced narrator George Guidall tells this Horatio Alger-meets-Walt Disney account of an ambitious young man living the American dream with spectacular bravado (LJ 4/15/96). Martin starts out as a bellhop in a modest hotel in turn-of-the-century Manhattan and ends up building lavish hotels that turn out to be theatrical extravaganzas. The author has vividly described it all in elegant prose, but for some reason he tends to stifle his characters. Instead of letting them talk for themselves, he talks about them. In fact, there is so little dialog that the liveliest character in the book is the city of New York. Guidall does his best to animate the inanimate text, but perhaps reading it aloud is not the best approach. Since Martin Dressler won Millhauser a Pulitzer Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award, it might make sense to enjoy the printed book and forget about the audio program. A marginal purchase.?Jo Carr, Sarasota, Fla.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From the Inside Flap
Young Martin Dressler begins his career as an industrious helper in his father's cigar store. In the course of his restless young manhood, he makes a swift and eventful rise to the top, accompanied by two sisters--one a dreamlike shadow, the other a worldly business partner. As the eponymous Martin's vision becomes bolder and bolder he walks a haunted line between fantasy and reality, madness and ambition, art and industry, a sense of doom builds piece-by-hypnotic piece until this mesmerizing journey into the heart of an American dreamer reaches its bitter-sweet conclusion.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
