Human Comedy (An Hbj Modern Classic) (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "The little boy named Ulysses Macauley one day stood over the new gopher hole on the backyard of his house on Santa Clara Avenue in..." (more)
Key Phrases: old telegraph operator, low hurdle race, cocoanut cream, Miss Hicks, Big Chris, Homer Macauley (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's -- a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants.. In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as delivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face with human emotion at its most naked and raw.

Gentle, poignant and richly autobiographical, this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a world that even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer and more livable than out own.

(From the Publisher )

Product Description

The story of an American family in wartime.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt (October 31, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151423016
• ISBN-13: 978-0151423019
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #539,523 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars required reading for teens and adults under stress, August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Human Comedy (Mass Market Paperback)

I'm a retired high school English teacher (42 years in California's classrooms), and I first read this novel in early 1944 at my grandfather's request at age 13. In my early teaching experience, I required this novel be read by my 10th grade students. In later years, the novel became the focus for my less able students as I guided them through the novel by having them prepare maps of Ithaca by transferring author descriptions into real street maps of Fresno, California. Incidentally, I was reared in Hanford, California, about 32 miles south...and, yes, the Postal Telegraph Office existed then and so did the Gallo Winery, though Saroyan used a different name.

Human dignity and sense of self within a community are key issues in this disarmingly simple narrative.The casual reader will miss the three-pronged revelation of human insight seen through the eyes of the child, Ulysses; the teen Homer; and the adult, Marcus. The widowed mother provides a stability upon which all these offspring rely. Essentially, she is a life source, and all three sons at the same time mirror her influence as they interact with others in the daily business of living.

Saroyan's simplicity in these three viewpoints, though cast in a time few modern readers can recall (1943),still strongly portrays a basic element of humans caring for humans. That act is valued forever regardless of culture, gender, or age. It is universal.

Unfortunately,I am unable to locate a copy containing a chapter titled "At the Parlor Rooms." Most copies taught at the high school level have had this chapter deleted. Today's youth would not be offended by its inclusion. Saroyan's intent, I believe, was to illustrate Homer's exposure to a fuller understanding of the "human experience," and its Aristotelian sense of the comedy of life.

I'll be assisting Saroyan's grand-niece this summer in a college course as she relates memories of her famous uncle. I look forward to revisiting Fresno, Augie, Shag, Mr. Mechano, the apricot tree, and the saintly librarian who guided two young boys into the magnificent mystery of books.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read the book, just not this version!, September 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Human Comedy (Mass Market Paperback)

The Human Comedy is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read, so when I opened this paperback version, I was devastated to realize that the unthinkable had occurred-- the text had been altered! The ending that I had so cherished in an old hardback version had been hastily re-written, going so far as to conclude with a completely different final sentence. I do not know how a publisher could in good conscience alter the work of such an extraordinarily gifted writer. In the grand scheme of things, a changed sentence here and a paraphrased statement there might not be of tremendous importance, but in the world of literature, we trust that we are reading the author's original work-- and in this case, that trust has been violated. So, before purchasing this paperback, make an effort to find an old hardback copy of this wonderful novel. At the very least, read the paperback and then re-read the last chapter as it is printed in 'The William Saroyan Reader'. The Human Comedy is an incredibly moving book and, unfortunately, this paperback edition does not do it justice.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Humanity and Innocence in amber, May 8, 2006

By	ANACHREON "Torchbearer" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Human Comedy (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is the equivalent of the Proustian madeleine...to read it is to recover a past long lost. Making the case for the mordant paradigm shift of US morals, ethics and literary tastes, this is the marker past which one can see the sad decline of the quality of art and life in the modern world. I cannot improve on the highly intelligent and sensitive overview given here by reviewer Big Orange "paxbear" and so will not review the book in detail. That it is one of only three Saroyan volumes still in print makes the case for the obsolesence of the clear heart and clear mind in today's mindlessly kinetic world. You can read this book in the time it would take you to go see MI 111 in a cineplex. Carpe diem. Read this instead.