Tommy Ogden, a Gatsbyesque character living in a mansion outside robber-baron-era Chicago, declines to give his wife the money to commission a bust of herself from the French master Rodin and announces instead his intention to endow a boys’ school. Ogden’s decision reverberates years later in the life of Lee Goodell, whose coming of age is at the heart of Ward Just’s emotionally potent new novel.
Lee’s life decisions—to become a sculptor, to sojourn in the mean streets of the South Side, to marry into the haute-intellectual culture of Hyde Park—play out against the crude glamour of midcentury Chicago. Just’s signature skill of conveying emotional heft with few words is put into play as Lee confronts the meaning of his four years at Ogden Hall School under the purview, in the school library, of a bust known as Rodin’s Debutante. And, especially, as he meets again a childhood friend, the victim of a brutal sexual assault of which she has no memory. It was a crime marking the end of Lee’s boyhood and the beginning of his understanding—so powerfully under the surface of Just’s masterly story—that how and what we remember add up to nothing less than our very lives.
Rodin's Debutante
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In Ward's solid 17th novel, a boy comes of age in mid-20th-century Chicago and tries to find a way to create art in the face of the world's harshness. Lee Goodell, an adventurous youngster, lives in New Jesper, a quiet town on the outskirts of Chicago where his father and a cabal of influential locals act as a well-meaning protectorate of the town. After the coverup of a horrific sex crime at Lee's school, the young Lee's illusions are broken, and he takes this loss of innocence with him to boarding school at the Ogden Hall School for Boys. Lee's education takes place in many arenas: the classroom, the football field, his sculpting studio, the Chicago streets, a free clinic, and among Hyde Park intellectuals, but when the victim of the sex crime from Lee's childhood returns to find out the truth of what happened, Just creates an opportunity for Lee to recognize the confluence of all these influences on his life. Just's prose is clean and powerful, and while Lee is a bit flat—even when he's bad, he's good—his coming-of-age is filled with rich observations and finely tuned details. (Mar.)
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(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Just extends his grand inquiry into family, honor, and injustice in his beguiling and unnerving seventeenth novel. Like An Unfinished Season (2004), this bildungsroman is set on Just�s home ground, northern Illinois, where Tommy Ogden, a man of enormous inherited wealth, flagrant taciturnity, and an excessive avidity for shooting animals, turns his massive prairie mansion into an ill-conceived boys�school at the onset of WWI. Lee Goodell, the son of a judge, grows up in a nearby small town, a bucolic place until the Great Depression delivers tramps and a horrific sex crime. Lee, dreamy, kind, and willful, attends Ogden�s school, then headed by a Melville fanatic, where he plays football and swoons over a sculpted bust by Rodin. Determined to become a sculptor, Lee rents a basement studio on Chicago�s South Side, where a knife attack jeopardizes his artistic vocation and involves him in the lives of his poor, struggling neighbors and the mission of a compassionate African American doctor. Stealthily meshing the gothic with the modern, the feral with the civilized, in this mordantly funny yet profoundly mysterious novel, Just asks what divides and what unites us. What should be kept secret? Which teaches us more, failure or success? And of what value is beauty? HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Award-winning Just attracts more readers with each uniquely compelling novel. --Donna Seaman
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More About the Author
WARD JUST is the author of fifteen previous novels, including the National Book Award finalist Echo House, A Dangerous Friend, winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for fiction from the Society of American Historians, and An Unfinished Season, winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award and a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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RODIN'S DEBUTANTE is an interesting, well written novel that unfortunately is too unfocused to fully realize some of the large themes author Ward Just seems to have envisioned. The two main characters of the book are Tommy Ogden and Lee Goodell. The much older Ogden was the son of a very wealthy railroad tycoon, never had to work and spent much of his free time hunting wild game around the world. For reasons that never seem particularly genuine Ogden decided to start a prep school for young men at the huge estate he inherited. Supposedly he fully endowed "Ogden Hall" because he wanted a school in rural Illinois to compete with the famous ones in the east but I was unconvinced. Lee Goodell was one of the upper middle class young men who attended the boarding school in the 1950's. Goodell and Ogden met just once when Ogden was an old man within a year of his death and Goodell a senior at the Ogden founded school celebrating his football team's miraculous season. The reader is supposed to believe that this coincidental meeting had great meaning to the two men and somehow ties the book together. The invented for this book sculpture "Rodin's Debutante" which gives its name to the novel also attempts to provide some cohesiveness to the plot line as it serves as a framing device featured at the start and end of the book and additionally mentioned a few times in the middle.
The best part of the book is the vivid and authentic way Chicago and its environs are depicted in the time period around the middle part of the twentieth century. RODIN'S DEBUTANTE also has interesting plot developments and comments on American life and is readable enough to easily hold the reader's interest. The most disappointing thing about the book is it often seems off kilter and leaves the impression that the author wanted to make important points and highlight great literary themes but falls short of his ambition mainly because of a meandering writing style. I also had difficulty in believing in some of the actions of the major characters as they did not strike me as particularly likely given what had been previously revealed of their present and future behaviors and attributes.
The best part of the book is the vivid and authentic way Chicago and its environs are depicted in the time period around the middle part of the twentieth century. RODIN'S DEBUTANTE also has interesting plot developments and comments on American life and is readable enough to easily hold the reader's interest. The most disappointing thing about the book is it often seems off kilter and leaves the impression that the author wanted to make important points and highlight great literary themes but falls short of his ambition mainly because of a meandering writing style. I also had difficulty in believing in some of the actions of the major characters as they did not strike me as particularly likely given what had been previously revealed of their present and future behaviors and attributes.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I give this unusual, meandering novel credit: I had no idea where it was going yet it held my interest throughout its circuitous journey. More than that, it made me think. What starts as a story about a wealthy rogue at the end of the Nineteenth Century segues into a World War II-era story about a young man who invigorates a prep school football team before he begins collegiate life and pursues an interest in sculpture. The story takes seamless detours into tales of small town violence (a vicious assault upon a female student) and big city violence (a mugging on Chicago's South Side) while exploring questions of perspective and memory. Tying together the stories of the rogue and the intellectual are a boarding school, a cathouse, and a bust sculpted by Rodin.
Rodin's Debutante focuses on two characters. Tommy Ogden, the son of a wealthy railroad baron, has no need to work and so indulges his passions: hunting, sketching, and sleeping with the women provided by the "social club" that leases him a space for his engagements. To the dismay of his wife, Ogden converts their estate into a boarding school for boys who can't fit in elsewhere. The bulk of the novel follows Lee Goodell, the son of a small town judge, who attends Ogden Hall before pursuing an intellectual and artistic life at the University of Chicago and in Chicago's Hyde Park. Like Rodin, Goodell becomes a sculptor. Two episodes of violence are central to the story: the vicious assault of a girl who is Goodell's classmate before he attends Ogden Hall and Goodell's own mugging years later. The two attacks have very different consequences for the two lives ... and that, I think, is one of the novel's points: you never know how your life will turn out. You may or may not be able to shape your future; you may or may not be able to remember your past -- and you may or may not want to do either one.
Although most of the novel is narrated in the third person, Goodell tells his story in the first person in a couple of segments, a jarring shift in point of view that at first puzzled me. This may have been one more way for Ward Just to illustrate the importance of perspective, an issue that lies at the novel's heart. Sometimes perspectives differ and the truth of the matter is hard to know: A headmaster believes that people learn only from their defeats, while Ogden thinks that defeat teaches nothing: it "stays with you and becomes the expected thing."
The differing perspective of urban and rural America is one of the novel's most intriguing themes (small town America, according to one of the novel's voices, provides the country with armies while urban America provides governance) but the larger theme is how people view similar events in different ways, and how the truth, whatever it might be, often remains concealed -- just as the hidden interior of a sculpted stone may never be entirely revealed. At the same time, some perspectives in the novel parallel each other, leading to the same result for different reasons: the small town leaders don't want to publicize the assault of the school girl while residents of the South Side Chicago neighborhood want to keep a lid on Goodell's mugging. In each case, the community believes that airing the truth will lead to harm (the loss of a sense of communal safety in the small town, retributive police action in Chicago). From their perspectives, it is the community that stands to suffer the greatest harm from the crime, not the victim. Of course, the victims see it much differently.
While these ideas make the novel well worth reading and thinking about, the book might not appeal to readers looking for a conventional plot-driven story. Ward Just tells the story in a nonlinear style, resulting in the meandering feeling I mentioned; events trigger memories of other events, stories beget more stories. That didn't bother me but I suspect some readers will be put off by it. A more significant criticism to me is the novel's tone. I rarely felt an emotional connection, either positive or negative, to the characters. I don't necessarily need to like the characters to enjoy a novel, but I want the novel to make me feel something, and about all I felt while reading Rodin's Debutante was curiosity about what might happen next and admiration for Just's writing style. There's little dramatic tension; conflict, when it comes, is usually low key, often described in a voice so detached as to drain it of vitality. A couple of scenes involving Lee and a mugger and one involving Lee and the assault victim are exceptions, as is a wonderfully written scene in which young Lee overhears his father meeting with town leaders in the aftermath of the girl's assault. If the novel had reached that level of intensity more often, I would give it five stars and recommend it highly. I recommend it nonetheless, but for different reasons: the sureness of the writing style and the ideas it explores. For those reasons, more than the story itself, I would give Rodin's Debutante 4 1/2 stars.
Rodin's Debutante focuses on two characters. Tommy Ogden, the son of a wealthy railroad baron, has no need to work and so indulges his passions: hunting, sketching, and sleeping with the women provided by the "social club" that leases him a space for his engagements. To the dismay of his wife, Ogden converts their estate into a boarding school for boys who can't fit in elsewhere. The bulk of the novel follows Lee Goodell, the son of a small town judge, who attends Ogden Hall before pursuing an intellectual and artistic life at the University of Chicago and in Chicago's Hyde Park. Like Rodin, Goodell becomes a sculptor. Two episodes of violence are central to the story: the vicious assault of a girl who is Goodell's classmate before he attends Ogden Hall and Goodell's own mugging years later. The two attacks have very different consequences for the two lives ... and that, I think, is one of the novel's points: you never know how your life will turn out. You may or may not be able to shape your future; you may or may not be able to remember your past -- and you may or may not want to do either one.
Although most of the novel is narrated in the third person, Goodell tells his story in the first person in a couple of segments, a jarring shift in point of view that at first puzzled me. This may have been one more way for Ward Just to illustrate the importance of perspective, an issue that lies at the novel's heart. Sometimes perspectives differ and the truth of the matter is hard to know: A headmaster believes that people learn only from their defeats, while Ogden thinks that defeat teaches nothing: it "stays with you and becomes the expected thing."
The differing perspective of urban and rural America is one of the novel's most intriguing themes (small town America, according to one of the novel's voices, provides the country with armies while urban America provides governance) but the larger theme is how people view similar events in different ways, and how the truth, whatever it might be, often remains concealed -- just as the hidden interior of a sculpted stone may never be entirely revealed. At the same time, some perspectives in the novel parallel each other, leading to the same result for different reasons: the small town leaders don't want to publicize the assault of the school girl while residents of the South Side Chicago neighborhood want to keep a lid on Goodell's mugging. In each case, the community believes that airing the truth will lead to harm (the loss of a sense of communal safety in the small town, retributive police action in Chicago). From their perspectives, it is the community that stands to suffer the greatest harm from the crime, not the victim. Of course, the victims see it much differently.
While these ideas make the novel well worth reading and thinking about, the book might not appeal to readers looking for a conventional plot-driven story. Ward Just tells the story in a nonlinear style, resulting in the meandering feeling I mentioned; events trigger memories of other events, stories beget more stories. That didn't bother me but I suspect some readers will be put off by it. A more significant criticism to me is the novel's tone. I rarely felt an emotional connection, either positive or negative, to the characters. I don't necessarily need to like the characters to enjoy a novel, but I want the novel to make me feel something, and about all I felt while reading Rodin's Debutante was curiosity about what might happen next and admiration for Just's writing style. There's little dramatic tension; conflict, when it comes, is usually low key, often described in a voice so detached as to drain it of vitality. A couple of scenes involving Lee and a mugger and one involving Lee and the assault victim are exceptions, as is a wonderfully written scene in which young Lee overhears his father meeting with town leaders in the aftermath of the girl's assault. If the novel had reached that level of intensity more often, I would give it five stars and recommend it highly. I recommend it nonetheless, but for different reasons: the sureness of the writing style and the ideas it explores. For those reasons, more than the story itself, I would give Rodin's Debutante 4 1/2 stars.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Rodin's Debutante was another critical darling for 2011, or at least it seemed to be from the professional reviews that I read. While the writing is good, the story overall left something to be desired.
It's a bit difficult to parse out the theme upon which this book is centered. There is Tommy Ogden, a rich eccentric who decides to build Ogden Hall, purportedly a school for talented boys who don't quite fit in. But Ogden Hall is simply a ship passing in the night, because the next focus is on Lee Goodell, a young man growing up in small midwestern town that is controlled by "The Committee". There is yet another switch in focus when the book then takes a look at some tragic incidents in that small town. Ogden Hall does later make some appearances in the book, but don't bother looking for any meaning or symbolism, because it's absent. I kept expecting these and other experiences of Lee's to tie together in some way, but they simply did not. In addition, the characters are quite weak (with the possible exception of Ogden), and the "hero" is nothing more than an aimless poseur who wants to do something good in life, but never rises above his faux rebellion against societal norms. It was more of a reporting of a (somewhat dull) young man's life, and I just didn't get it at all.
The writing was good and the anecdotes that are found in the book are interesting in their own right. But the lack of cohesiveness made this feel more like a separate book of essays than a united story with a point.
It's a bit difficult to parse out the theme upon which this book is centered. There is Tommy Ogden, a rich eccentric who decides to build Ogden Hall, purportedly a school for talented boys who don't quite fit in. But Ogden Hall is simply a ship passing in the night, because the next focus is on Lee Goodell, a young man growing up in small midwestern town that is controlled by "The Committee". There is yet another switch in focus when the book then takes a look at some tragic incidents in that small town. Ogden Hall does later make some appearances in the book, but don't bother looking for any meaning or symbolism, because it's absent. I kept expecting these and other experiences of Lee's to tie together in some way, but they simply did not. In addition, the characters are quite weak (with the possible exception of Ogden), and the "hero" is nothing more than an aimless poseur who wants to do something good in life, but never rises above his faux rebellion against societal norms. It was more of a reporting of a (somewhat dull) young man's life, and I just didn't get it at all.
The writing was good and the anecdotes that are found in the book are interesting in their own right. But the lack of cohesiveness made this feel more like a separate book of essays than a united story with a point.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
"They call me Ishmael...."
The story is told by main character Lee Goodell with little passion and minimal involvement. Writing is fine, but not much happens except the passage of time. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Pucci
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ward Just is Ward Just
A good read! The book followed the template that Ward Just appears to use. If you like Ward Just, you will enjoy this book. Not great literature, but a good fast read.
Published 5 months ago by Charles E. Carlson
4.0 out of 5 stars
Literary study of human development
Ward Just has given in us Rodin's Debutante what has been described by some as a coming of age novel. Unlike J. D. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Offenbach
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ward Just does it again
I have enjoyed Ward Just over the years. While I have not enjoyed all of his work, the quality of writing is always very high. Read more
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3.0 out of 5 stars
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This book is very readable, and interesting for it's depiction of Chicago at a certain time in history. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Marcia Epstein
5.0 out of 5 stars
Richly detailed coming-of-age story in which 1950s Chicago comes alive
Ward Just's newest novel, RODIN'S DEBUTANTE, is a fascinating and absorbing read however you want to interpret it. Read more
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How is art formed? How is the artist formed? These are some of the questions that Ward Just explores in his finely written novel, Rodin's Debutante. Read more
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Rodin's Debutante, by Ward Just
This review is for Robdin's Debutante, a novel by Ward Just. The title of this novel is based on a marble bust that is featured in the novel. Read more
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