A Sense of Values [Hardcover]

Sloan WILSON (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: SOLD; F edition (1960)
• ASIN: B0018HSEGQ
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Digs Deep Into Your Emotional Reserve!, November 7, 2010

By 

L. Curtin "flutelaura" (Palm Bay, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Sense of Values (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked this book up at a garage sale and upon reading, was immediately immersed in, what seemed initially tragic; a man's life is falling apart as he faces middle age. He's accrued wealth, honor and prestige . . . all the things he has been dreaming of, but is he TRULY successful?

The book opens up where Nathan Bond, the protaganist, is faced with a crisis in his life - his son has allegedly destroyed their vacant home - vacant because Nathan and his wife are divorcing and the pressures that have built up between them seem to be exploding out of their eldest son.

We then go back in time to when Nathan and his lovely wife, Amy, meet as children and are given a vivid emotional history of Nathan as he struggles with relationships with his parents, friends, officers and fellow soldiers. There is so much depth and complexity to Nathan, but it truly gives great insight and anyone who as evaluated their life to some degree, can relate to many of the conclusions he comes to - there are many poignant stories where a moral appears to form and shape Nathan. Many social mores are explored and this give a great picture for anyone interested in early 20th century family life.

If you love books that have deep characters - no just surface fluff - this is a great book for you. It is a true Romance without all the taudry sexuality of today's romances - it's filled with mystery, intrigue, danger, despair, revelations and so much more.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Making a Way in the World, April 12, 2006

By 

Lee Armstrong (Winterville, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A sense of values

Sloan Wilson's 1960 novel "Sense of Values" followed two hits for him, "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" and "A Summer Place" that was made into a 1959 movie with Sandra Dee, Troy Donohue & Dorothy McGuire.

Wilson sets up a bit of a mystery as Nathan Bond who is separated from his wife Amy finds out that their Greenhills house that is on the market to be sold as been vandalized. He suspects his son Steve who is having emotional problems because of his parents' separation and impending divorce.

We then move into a very long flashback starting with Nathan's years as the son of a failed preacher who longs to be a writer. We see childhood Nathan meet Amy and her wealthy family. Usual childhood conflicts arise as Amy's older brother Jonathan bullies Nathan. Nathan's father becomes ill and wastes away unpleasantly. His mother must be confined to a mental institution after his dad's passing, which leaves a young 18-year old Nathan to fend for himself. Nathan reconnects with Amy who is graduating from the debutante circuit and sparks kindle between them. Nathan graduates from Yale and war intervenes. Amy quickly marries Nathan before he heads off to war.

The next sequence in the book takes place aboard a ship in the North Atlantic. Captain Bestor commands the Harrier, a ship that has a run in icy waters of Greenland where it sits and gives off sonar signals, begging to be sunk by a submarine. The crew lives under constant threat of death. In this difficult environment, young Nathan survives. He gets injured and taken off the ship just weeks before an enemy bomb sends the Harrier into the drink. Nathan recalls his ship buddies frequently through the remaining events.

Post-war, Nathan struggles to make a living, trying to give his wife the affluence with which she was raised. He takes a job with the Charlesport Record, a small paper where he works as a cub correspondent. Nathan grows into the role and publishes a small cartoon. The interest in the cartoon takes him to a magazine "Modern Women" where he makes more money, but ultimately finds most of the work unsatisfying. His cartoons bring him to the attention of another publisher who lures him away from the magazine and gets his cartoon series of Rollo the Magnificent, a tramp, into syndicated papers around the country. This results in a movie deal.

As Nathan's career takes off and money starts to flow in, his personal life deteriorates. Antagonisms with his wife Amy take a toll as Nathan hits the booze regularly to drown his woes. The tension between husband and wife cause son Steve and daughter Sally heartaches. The discontent between husband & wife leads to extra-marital affairs for each, which causes separation and the brink of divorce.

At the end, the novel returns to where it started. We learn beyond a doubt that it was Steve & some inebriated buddies who trashed the Greenhills estate. By that point, 600 pages later, it's hardly a surprise.

Wilson does a nice job with the novel. The characters seem like they might have been real people. The problem with the novel is that it's hard to have a great deal of sympathy for the main characters who seem intent on messing up their lives. It's an interesting read here 46 years later and ends with a splash of moralizing that there's good and evil in all of us. Enjoy!