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49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Heights of Naturalism, June 9, 2003
It is no mystery why Frank Norris praised to high heaven Theodore Dreiser's 1900 novel "Sister Carrie." Norris, one of America's great naturalist writers, saw in Dreiser's tale about a young woman on the make a reflection of the same bleak vistas he wrote about in "Vandover and the Brute," "The Octopus," and "McTeague." When Dreiser submitted his book for publication, it was Norris who read the book and made a glowing recommendation to the publisher. There were immense problems with "Sister Carrie" from that point forward: the wife of the publisher hated the story and worked hard behind the scenes to prevent its release. With a contract already signed, Dreiser's book did become a reality but the publishing house refused to support it with any marketing. The story languished for years in a paper limbo before finally emerging to great success and acclaim. Thank goodness it did because this may be one of the most powerful books ever written about social climbing and the perils of bad morals. Dreiser went on to publish more novels (American Tragedy, The Financier) before dropping out of the literary scene and converting to communism before his death in 1945."Sister Carrie" doesn't promise much at the beginning. In fact, this is yet another story about a rural person arriving in the big city seeking fame and fortune. In this case, it is Carrie Meeber, a young woman moving to Chicago to live with her sister and her husband while she tries to find work. Carrie quickly discovers big city life is tough; her sister's home life bores her to death, the work she finds in a shoe factory is pure drudgery, and she doesn't have enough money to buy decent clothes because she has to pay her sister four dollars a week for rent. Carrie hates her base co-workers and spends most of her free time watching people pass on the street outside of her sister's apartment. When Carrie loses her job after an illness, it looks like she will have to return home to Columbia City and forget about her dreams in Chicago. Enter George Drouet, a semi-successful salesman with a voracious appetite for the ladies. George finagled Carrie's address when he met her on the train into Chicago, and now the two meet again by chance. The results of this meeting shape the rest of the book. Carrie abandons her sister's lodgings and becomes "kept" by George. It is during this period that Carrie meets George Hurstwood, the wealthy manager of a fancy Chicago tavern and friend of Drouet. Through a series of misunderstandings about the marriage status of Carrie and Hurstwood, and serious lapses in moral judgments, Hurstwood and Carrie move on to bigger and better things in New York City. It is at this point that Norris must have began enthusing, for Dreiser embarks on a harrowing tour through the destruction of a human being's body and soul. Just when you think a person could sink no lower, Dreiser yanks you back to reality and illustrates for you just how bad things can get before the inevitable occurs. When the author contrasts the utter humiliation of one character with the elevation in status of another, the tension becomes too much to bear. This novel is painful to read, but at the same time it is so riveting it is nearly impossible to put it down. We've all seen or known people who suffered the fates revealed in this story, or at least I have, and that makes it even more chillingly realistic. How Dreiser managed to capture the feel of his characters' lives is a mystery, but that is what makes this book great literature; it is timeless in its examination of the inner workings of the human soul. "Sister Carrie" is classic literature, but that does not mean there are not problems with the story. Dreiser's prose takes some getting used to before it starts to flow. In fact, this may be the best book I have ever read where the prose is often mediocre. I told one person that the author's style reminded me of an intoxicated welder, and I still believe that to be the case for most of the book. Dreiser has a tendency to jam his sentences together into an unwieldy mix of clauses and commas. After a few hundred pages this hardly seems to matter but it could provide a reason for someone just starting the book to quit reading it. Do not quit, however, because the story ends up being so good that the stylistic problems quickly fade into insignificance. Another difficulty involves the middle portion of the story, when Carrie, Drouet, and Hurstwood vie for position with each other. These chapters appreciably drag while providing no clues about the goldmine that soon follows. Looking at the story as a whole, I understand now why these chapters were necessary but I didn't while I was reading them. Again, do not give up too soon lest you miss out on the extraordinary buildup to the soul shattering conclusion. Ultimately, the messages conveyed by Dreiser outweigh the dual problems of prose and a few plodding chapters. The scandalous behavior the author wrote about angered many during his time because people believed that divorce, infidelity, loose morals, and social positioning were things better talked about privately than brought out in the open. The fact that Dreiser wrote such things without delivering a blistering rebuke about such behaviors also stunned society. Perhaps it is not too far off to say that Theodore Dreiser was the Jerry Springer of his generation, merely revealing things that everyone knew happened behind closed doors. Whatever the case may be, "Sister Carrie" is sheer brilliance. I was so fired up after reading this book that I went right out and got "American Tragedy." I now understand why Frank Norris went into paroxysms of delight about Dreiser's book.
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by Edith Wharton
by William Dean Howells
by Frank Norris
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
by Theodore Dreiser
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