Thursday, April 11, 2013

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

It took me ages to finish this book.  I'm afraid I'm not a big fan of Thomas Wolfe.  I really struggled for the first 250 pages.  Then it caught my interest more, and I enjoyed most of the rest, other than a long seemingly pointless chapter about the "Younger Set" that listed names of all sorts of characters who had nothing to do with the story and who never appeared again.  Wolfe has frequent sections that don't seem to apply to the story, but this is the longest I remember.  Look Homeward, Angel tells the story of the dysfunctional Gant family.  It particularly focuses on the youngest son, Eugene Gant, an isolated introvert who feels lonely and separate from his family, except maybe his brother Ben.  After a traumatic experience, he becomes increasingly focused on his inner life and seems to be very narcisstic.  I didn't enjoy the end of the story as I couldn't understand 'Gene's behavior and it seems so strange to me.  Then the story didn't really resolve and ended with a dream sequence that didn't mean much to me.  I'm sure it was loaded with symbolism if I took the time to find it, but I couldn't get past the "ghost" and the moving marble monuments.  This isn't a book I would recommend, but if you read it, don't get too discouraged by the first half.  The second half is better!

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