A large family with a great appetite for living is dominated by the father until an older son, Gant, is able to free himself.
Reviews
A Wonderful Grind
4
By Charlie and Hootie
At 1400 pages this book was a challenge but enriching, poetic and moving. For full transparency my Mother and Aunt were raving Thomas Wolfe fans - groupies if you will - so in my youth they pushed all of their kids to read and connect with the author. They even travelled to Asheville, NC to see the setting for this book. They were both southern belles of his generation so they followed his lyricism and rhythm I presume.
His story, the book is largely autobiographical, is detailed in vivid color. The town, the people, his family, his family, his family. There are also love trysts and sojourns of the main character (Eugene/Wolfe) that are detailed colorfully.
Wolfe was notorious for being wordy and, even with Max Perkins slicing and dicing his narrative as an esteemed editor of the time, Wolfe uses a paragraph when a sentence would do. He, for example, shares reading a story in the library, the story itself, for 12 pages! He describes the geology, the mountains, the weather, the town square in sometimes painful detail and yet only occasionally I felt like it was time to move on. And his family - hold on to your hat for there is endless dysfunction coupled with almost a painful love. It resonated and manifested the complexity, dialogue, hurt and affection only a family can sustain.
This was a bucket list item to read in retirement as an ode to my Mother….I am glad I did.
Franz Kafka, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Rumi, Plato, Tacitus, Homer, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, Alfred Adler, Marcus Aurelius, Arthur Schopenhauer, Walt Whitman, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Karl May, Alexandre Dumas, James Fenimore Cooper, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, O. Henry, Stefan Zweig, Charles Dickens, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph von Eichendorff, Klaus Mann, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Else Lasker-Schüler, Heinrich Heine, Herman Melville, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Gustav Freytag, Thomas Wolfe, Jonathan Swift, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gustave Flaubert, Rainer Maria Rilke, John Galsworthy, Iwan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow, Oscar Wilde, Lew Wallace, Voltaire, Lewis Carroll, Johanna Spyri, Mark Twain, Selma Lagerlöf, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Jack London, Miguel de Cervantes, Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Molière, Theodor Fontane, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Dante Alighieri, Joseph Roth, Robert Musil, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Heinrich Mann, Kurt Tucholsky, Heinrich von Kleist, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Gottfried Keller, Sophie von La Roche, Theodor Storm & William Shakespeare
Franz Kafka, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Rumi, Plato, Tacitus, Homer, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, Alfred Adler, Marcus Aurelius, Arthur Schopenhauer, Walt Whitman, Joseph Conrad, Robert Louis Stevenson, Karl May, Alexandre Dumas, James Fenimore Cooper, Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, O. Henry, Stefan Zweig, Charles Dickens, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Joseph von Eichendorff, Klaus Mann, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Else Lasker-Schüler, Heinrich Heine, Herman Melville, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Gustav Freytag, Thomas Wolfe, Jonathan Swift, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gustave Flaubert, Rainer Maria Rilke, John Galsworthy, Iwan Alexandrowitsch Gontscharow, Oscar Wilde, Lew Wallace, Voltaire, Lewis Carroll, Johanna Spyri, Mark Twain, Selma Lagerlöf, Rudyard Kipling, Jules Verne, Jack London, Miguel de Cervantes, Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant, Molière, Theodor Fontane, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Dante Alighieri, Joseph Roth, Robert Musil, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Heinrich Mann, Kurt Tucholsky, Heinrich von Kleist, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Gottfried Keller, Sophie von La Roche, Theodor Storm & William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Emily Brontë, Joseph Conrad, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Charlotte Brontë, Lewis Carrol, Henry Fielding, William Makepeace Thackeray, George Eliot, Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Walter Scott, Oscar Wilde, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Wilkie Collins, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rudyard Kipling, G. K. Chesterton, Thomas Wolfe, T.E. Lawrence, Edgar Wallace, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce & Bret Harte
Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Lord Byron, Franz Kafka, Victor Hugo, Giacomo Leopardi, Marcel Proust, Henrik Ibsen, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, Henry Fielding, George Eliot, William Shakespeare, D. H. Lawrence, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Thomas Wolfe, Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, Lewis Carrol, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Daniel Defoe, James Fenimore Cooper, Lew Wallace, Jonathan Swift, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mark Twain, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Laurence Sterne, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Washington Irving, O. Henry, Ambrose Bierce, Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin, Michail Lermontow, Iwan Sergejewitsch Turgenew, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol, Iwan Gontscharow, Nikolai Leskow, Anton Pawlowitsch Tschechow, Maxim Gorki, François Rabelais, Jean de La Fontaine, Blaise Pascal, Pierre Corneille, Molière, Pierre Ambroise Choderlos de Laclos, Antoine-François Prevost & Marquis de Sade
Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann, Herman Melville, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, André Gide, Rainer Maria Rilke, Joseph Conrad, Knut Hamsun, Klaus Mann, Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski, Oscar Wilde & Thomas Wolfe
Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, R. L. Stevenson, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Emily Brontë, Mary Shelley, Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, William Makepeace Thackeray, Bram Stoker, Henry Fielding, George Eliot, Herman Melville, Thomas Wolfe, Joseph Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, Lewis Carrol, Edgar Allan Poe, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Daniel Defoe, James Fenimore Cooper, Lew Wallace, Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Laurence Sterne, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Wallace, Jack London, John Galsworthy & F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fjodor Dostojewski, Franz Kafka, Herman Melville, Knut Hamsun, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, André Gide, Rainer Maria Rilke, Joseph Conrad, Klaus Mann, Oscar Wilde & Thomas Wolfe
Thomas Mann, Herman Melville, Hermann Hesse, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Fjodor Dostojewski, Franz Kafka, Friedrich Nietzsche, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, André Gide, Rainer Maria Rilke, Joseph Conrad, Knut Hamsun, Klaus Mann, Oscar Wilde & Thomas Wolfe
Herman Melville, Thomas Wolfe, Henry David Thoreau, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Walt Whitman, Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, Jack London, Frances Hodgson Burnett & Edgar Allan Poe