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I Thought of Daisy
Originally published in 1929, this is the first of three novels by Edmund Wilson, written whilst balancing his ambitions as a novelist against a career in literary criticism. The two tie together here in a depiction of a young man struggling to find his American ideal in a young chorus girl.
278 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1929
About the author
Edmund Wilson
230 books144 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database. See also physicist Edmund Wilson.
Influential works of American literary critic Edmund Wilson include Axel's Castle (1931), a study of the symbolist movement, and Patriotic Gore (1962), a critique of literature from the Civil War era.
Many consider this social writer as preeminent man of letters of the 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_...
Influential works of American literary critic Edmund Wilson include Axel's Castle (1931), a study of the symbolist movement, and Patriotic Gore (1962), a critique of literature from the Civil War era.
Many consider this social writer as preeminent man of letters of the 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 21, 2012
It took me awhile before I got really interested on this book's story. The prose is in the first person and told by an unnamed narrator. He tells the reader not only the daily happenings in his life but also more importantly, about the two women that he just met at the beginning of the story. Their names are Rita Cavanaugh and Daisy Coleman. Both of these ladies are married but our narrator can't help but notice and fall of them. First, that feeling that could be love or infatuation, was just inside his mind and he tells every single detail of what he is thinking to the reader. His being a young man, fresh from college, trying to survive in the bohemian side of New York, i.e., Greenwich Village, in the 20's, all make this book hard for me to appreciate at first. I cannot relate to the narrator, so why should I care about what he thinks or feels?
However, as I read pages and pages of his thoughts trying to choose between Rita and Daisy, I could not help but see my young self in the narrator. I think most of us had, at some points in our lives, a time when we needed to choose between two people we felt in love with or at least got attracted to. Am I right? For me, this is really what made the narrator's monoloque a bit interesting. It shows how a young man (that I was, a couple of decades ago), falls in love with a woman. Wilson was able to put on paper what are the thoughts that go on in a young man's brain, what are the risks that he'd like to avoid or minimize, what are the fears that accompanies his decisions, what are the hopes that he likes to achieve in entering a relationship.
Then yesterday, while I was reading the second half of the book (this classic American novel is actually a one long narration without any chapters), I googled the author and found out that this is a disguised autobiography. Rita Cavanagh's character was based on the life of American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, who in 1929 became the first woman to win the Pulitzer award for poetry and with whom Edmund Wilson had an on-off affair despite the two of them being married to their own partners. Edmund Wilson's wife was Mary McCarthy who was the author of a 501 book (under modern fiction), The Group. That made it very interesting for me because I have not read any works of these three classic American authors and whenever I encounter something "juicy" situation like this, I always become snoopy on how their personal lives become incorporated to their creative writings.
So, I am now looking for some poetry books by Millay and will definitely be reading that novel by McCarthy.
However, as I read pages and pages of his thoughts trying to choose between Rita and Daisy, I could not help but see my young self in the narrator. I think most of us had, at some points in our lives, a time when we needed to choose between two people we felt in love with or at least got attracted to. Am I right? For me, this is really what made the narrator's monoloque a bit interesting. It shows how a young man (that I was, a couple of decades ago), falls in love with a woman. Wilson was able to put on paper what are the thoughts that go on in a young man's brain, what are the risks that he'd like to avoid or minimize, what are the fears that accompanies his decisions, what are the hopes that he likes to achieve in entering a relationship.
Then yesterday, while I was reading the second half of the book (this classic American novel is actually a one long narration without any chapters), I googled the author and found out that this is a disguised autobiography. Rita Cavanagh's character was based on the life of American poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, who in 1929 became the first woman to win the Pulitzer award for poetry and with whom Edmund Wilson had an on-off affair despite the two of them being married to their own partners. Edmund Wilson's wife was Mary McCarthy who was the author of a 501 book (under modern fiction), The Group. That made it very interesting for me because I have not read any works of these three classic American authors and whenever I encounter something "juicy" situation like this, I always become snoopy on how their personal lives become incorporated to their creative writings.
So, I am now looking for some poetry books by Millay and will definitely be reading that novel by McCarthy.
February 3, 2016
A blow by blow account of what goes on in a young man's mind as he falls in love with one women, out again and in with another of an entirely different type! But another take on the novel is that it is a "coming of age" story of Edmund Wilson's early adult and professional life where for the first time he decides for himself how he will view
American society and the world.
American society and the world.
December 19, 2018
Setting: New York between 1918 and 1920
Subject: love and relationship of young adults in post WWI New York
Interesting: historical insight in social live of young adults in New York between WWI and 1920. Novel and subject seems quite modern for its time although the style is still old fashioned: long winding and large sentences. Apparantly young adults drank a lot in these days and making love seems freer than today.
Not so interesting: Too much explaining, too long sentences (the longest is nearly 1 page long, see last page of first chapter) and sometimes irrelevant long winding passages of thought.
Structure:
The book has five chapters. Each chapter represents a recollected moment, usually a day or a night long.
1 Party at Daisies and start of relationship with Rita – span in time: night to morning
2 break up with Rita and starting with Daisy – day and evening
3 Party at Sues and disappointment with Daisy – evening and night
4 Discussion with professor philosophy, meeting Pete and Daisy who live now together. – afternoon - evening - morning
5 A hot summer day with Daisy at Coney Island, and finally making love to her (even though she is engaged to Pete) – day and evening
Story
The book has five chapters. Every chapter represents a moment in time.
1: The story starts with a party at Daisies where the writer meets Rita Cavanagh, a poet and takes her home. They talk the night through. The chapter concludes with a biography of Hugo Bagman, which at first glance doesn’t make sense for the story. This chapter could just stop after the night with Rita.
2: Rita leaves the writer for Paris. The writer looks back at their relationship and how it ended. Here the writer starts to think about Daisy, looks her up and takes her out to dinner.
3: Party at Sue Borglums, a friend of Daisy. The writer planned to see Daisy the next evening, after the first date, but family matters took him for several weeks tot the country. When he came back, he looks up Daisy but she is at a friends home. It was a bit of a disappointment: ‘I hoped to find Daisy clean from bath and with her lovely candid smile’ What he finds at this “friends” home is Daisy with Pete Bird, which turned out to be Daisies boyfriend, and all of them drunk. They where just planning to go to Sue Borglums party. The writer joins and al his romance falls to pieces. They decide to go home. The writer went out to buy a bottle of gin and on arriving at Daisies apartment Daisy has cut her wrist. Pete and Daisy make it clear that the writer isn't welcome and he goes back to Sues party. Things got dirty there and the writer got in a fight .
4: A jump in time: The writer looks up his old professor in philosophy. Interesting to note that Einsteins relativity theory has its effect on philosophical thinking. It also seems that the scientific world didn’t change much: “If you want to see the sort of men that the medieval church must have been made up of, you should study a assemblage of modern scientists” … “If a scientist has evolved a hypothesis which runs counter to the established hypothesis, they won’t give it a serious hearing – if he’s performed an experiment … which conflicts with accepted experiments, they refuse to look at it!”
Next afternoon he goes to Pete and Daisy who live in de country, near NYC. Next day the writer has a long walk and talk with Daisy. The writer is still in love, but his respect for Pete holds him back.
5. A summers day in NYC. Pete went to Boston with a friend to find work and Daisy and the writer are going to Coney Island and have a good time. It seems they knew the same people from their youth in Pittsburgh. It turns out that Daisy actually was in love with Hugo Bamman. The chapter ends with finally making love to Daisy.
Title
At first glance the title I Thought of Rita would be more appropriate. Throughout the whole story the writer thinks back at his relationship with Rita. Considering that it is written ten years after, and that the story is autobiographical, Daisy was probably much more important for the writer and it looks like the story was written as a meaning to close a chapter with the writers past love.
Subject: love and relationship of young adults in post WWI New York
Interesting: historical insight in social live of young adults in New York between WWI and 1920. Novel and subject seems quite modern for its time although the style is still old fashioned: long winding and large sentences. Apparantly young adults drank a lot in these days and making love seems freer than today.
Not so interesting: Too much explaining, too long sentences (the longest is nearly 1 page long, see last page of first chapter) and sometimes irrelevant long winding passages of thought.
Structure:
The book has five chapters. Each chapter represents a recollected moment, usually a day or a night long.
1 Party at Daisies and start of relationship with Rita – span in time: night to morning
2 break up with Rita and starting with Daisy – day and evening
3 Party at Sues and disappointment with Daisy – evening and night
4 Discussion with professor philosophy, meeting Pete and Daisy who live now together. – afternoon - evening - morning
5 A hot summer day with Daisy at Coney Island, and finally making love to her (even though she is engaged to Pete) – day and evening
Story
The book has five chapters. Every chapter represents a moment in time.
1: The story starts with a party at Daisies where the writer meets Rita Cavanagh, a poet and takes her home. They talk the night through. The chapter concludes with a biography of Hugo Bagman, which at first glance doesn’t make sense for the story. This chapter could just stop after the night with Rita.
2: Rita leaves the writer for Paris. The writer looks back at their relationship and how it ended. Here the writer starts to think about Daisy, looks her up and takes her out to dinner.
3: Party at Sue Borglums, a friend of Daisy. The writer planned to see Daisy the next evening, after the first date, but family matters took him for several weeks tot the country. When he came back, he looks up Daisy but she is at a friends home. It was a bit of a disappointment: ‘I hoped to find Daisy clean from bath and with her lovely candid smile’ What he finds at this “friends” home is Daisy with Pete Bird, which turned out to be Daisies boyfriend, and all of them drunk. They where just planning to go to Sue Borglums party. The writer joins and al his romance falls to pieces. They decide to go home. The writer went out to buy a bottle of gin and on arriving at Daisies apartment Daisy has cut her wrist. Pete and Daisy make it clear that the writer isn't welcome and he goes back to Sues party. Things got dirty there and the writer got in a fight .
4: A jump in time: The writer looks up his old professor in philosophy. Interesting to note that Einsteins relativity theory has its effect on philosophical thinking. It also seems that the scientific world didn’t change much: “If you want to see the sort of men that the medieval church must have been made up of, you should study a assemblage of modern scientists” … “If a scientist has evolved a hypothesis which runs counter to the established hypothesis, they won’t give it a serious hearing – if he’s performed an experiment … which conflicts with accepted experiments, they refuse to look at it!”
Next afternoon he goes to Pete and Daisy who live in de country, near NYC. Next day the writer has a long walk and talk with Daisy. The writer is still in love, but his respect for Pete holds him back.
5. A summers day in NYC. Pete went to Boston with a friend to find work and Daisy and the writer are going to Coney Island and have a good time. It seems they knew the same people from their youth in Pittsburgh. It turns out that Daisy actually was in love with Hugo Bamman. The chapter ends with finally making love to Daisy.
Title
At first glance the title I Thought of Rita would be more appropriate. Throughout the whole story the writer thinks back at his relationship with Rita. Considering that it is written ten years after, and that the story is autobiographical, Daisy was probably much more important for the writer and it looks like the story was written as a meaning to close a chapter with the writers past love.
January 21, 2016
The book ends with the main character asking Daisy to run away with him, she says no even though she asked him to run away with her three pages ago because I don't fucking know, bitches be crazy, and he loses her mouth organ, which she's vaguely unhappy about because she wanted to show her boyfriend that she could play it. And the book ends on the mouth organ. It's not a euphemism. He left an actual mouth organ that they won at the fair in the taxi and she's mildly disappointed about it. There. Now you don't have to read this book unless you're dying to know what his thoughts on sonnets are.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2021
3.5 stars. A well written, interesting character based novel set in bohemian New York in the 1920s. The unnamed narrator is young and impressionable. He is a writer and associates himself with other people who are involved in literature and the arts. He is influenced by Rita Cavanagh, a well known poetess, and Hugh Batman, a left wing writer. Daisy mixes with the bohemian crowd, but she is a more genuine, unpretentious young women who has worked as a chorus girl.
The novel is a loosely based autobiography. The author had a short term affair with Edna St. Vincent Millay, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923.
This book was first published in 1929.
The novel is a loosely based autobiography. The author had a short term affair with Edna St. Vincent Millay, the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1923.
This book was first published in 1929.
March 3, 2016
This was a very interesting look into the 1920's life in Greenwich Village. The characters were very entertaining and enlightening as they partied on during the days of prohibition and American communism. We also get a glimpse into the narrator's thoughts as he is trying to decide between two women he is in love with (Rita Cavanaugh or Daisy Coleman). The book is very well written and I recommend it for anyone interested in the time period.
November 29, 2023
In my mind, there is a hierarchy of classic books: the truly great classics that everyone knows, the lesser or genre-specific classics that English majors should have heard of, and those works which are classics on the basis of age but are a point of reference for nearly no one. I have read few in the first category still: Moby Dick, War & Peace, and A Tale of Two Cities are all sitting unread on my shelf. But I can't help but constantly indulge in works that fit more into the third category, like I Thought of Daisy. I found it at a used bookstore, saw it was written in the 1920s by a guy whose name seemed very vaguely familiar, and thought the premise sounded like exactly the thing I'd like to read, and now I've read it. It was gangly, awkward, and a mishmashed plot that a generous person might say was "meandering". Wilson was deciding whether to be a literary critic or a novelist, and that conflict is fully apparent in the novel, which seems like two or three short stories mortared together by long biographical excerpts and literary rants. But the writing is incredibly powerful. Sometimes it feels lilting and sweet, other times terse and Hemingway-esque; the dialogue between characters are undramatic and disjointed in a way only very real conversation can be. There are incredible characters: awkward, gentle, fierce rebel Hugo (based on Dos Passos), captivating and isolated poetess Rita (based on Edna St. Vincent Millay), and the titular Daisy, many-faceted American ideal. The description of soldiers returning to the US from France after WWI is awfully moving, though completely irrelevant to the plot otherwise. I don't suppose this book is particularly good taken on the measure of what it could be, but what it is is enough to make me resent that Wilson didn't write so much more.
April 5, 2020
It's not clear to me why these two pieces are put together, except that they take place at approximately the same time (1920s) and place (NYC, specifically the artistic and radical social circle around Greenwich Village). But the short story "Galahad" has none of the characters found in "I Thought of Daisy," and the people aren't of the same age. In fact, "Galahad" might even be pre-WWI, I can't tell.
"Galahad" is about a high schooler named Hart Foster who is being raised in the righteous, mighty Christian tradition of the YMCA of the time. It's a world incomprehensible in modern America, except perhaps for fundamentalist Christians. it has a bit of humor and a bit of irony, but it's not a story that would be published today, though maybe it was innovative and risque in its day.
Hart is a high school junior about to be named a leader for his senior year. He has imbibed all the pretensions of his religious boarding school in suburban New York -- be manly, stunt your sexual desires, think of women as weak but also pure. Don't drink, smoke or gamble. There's a sly scene in which two men lecture the boys about all the evils to avoid, and the third-person narrator observes that they hadn't even thought about (maybe not even heard of those things), but now the lecture put them in their minds.
Anyway, Hart is taken to the home of the senior year's leader during a break from boarding school, and the guy's sister makes moves on him. She climbs in bed with him, indicating she's done this before, and everything will be all right. This is the stuff of a hundred raunchy movie comedies since the 1970s, but here's it's not played for laughs. The guy says no, and that he wants her and him to be pure. He regrets it an hour later, of course, but she's frosty to him. He tells her a couple of weeks later that he loves her, but she's moved on to other guys, and he realizes at the end that you can't overcome certain desires, and maybe you shouldn't even try. A coming of age story, without a consummation.
"I Thought of Daisy" is a short novel, whereas "Galahad" is a long short story. It's also a coming of age story, but with lots of (offstage) sex.
I don't see why it's title and descriptions say it's focused on Daisy. To me, it really is focused on the "I," a guy whose name I can't remember. He is a fledgling writer, having survived 2 years of infantry duty in WWII. He falls in with the progressive crowd in the Village and is wowed at first by their intellect, their strong views, their unconventionality. Think "Gatsby," but bohemian, not the Hamptons. Tons of drinking, brazen women, educated people showing off.
Anyway, in this story the guy is very thoughtful, and he spends a lot of time trying to figure out people's motivations, particularly what inspires their art or other vocation, and what has interfered with that striving (because he isn't getting anywhere with his goal of writing a novel or writing good poetry). He pals around with a communist named Hugo, and through him meets the big-drinking, loud-talking Greenwich Village boho scene. At one party he meets within a matter of minutes Daisy, a lovely, petite former chorus girl, and then Rita, a well-known poet who's perhaps 10 years older than he is. He doesn't think much of Daisy, except to feel sorry for her stuck with a boorish husband, Ray, who embarrasses her at the party. (Turns out she never married Ray.)
Much to his shock, he leaves the party with Rita, spends a wonderful evening drinking and discussing poetry, and winds up having a date with her two days later.
Over the next several chapters -- each of which is about 50 pages -- we see the same people interacting. But their lives change over time, and the narrator's perspective about them and himself changes, too. First, he has Rita as a lover, and while we don't see their time together, we find out in retrospect that it was pretty tense and dysfunctional. Rita has had a lot of lovers, somewhat due to her "live for the day" attitude, and somewhat due to her constant need for financial support. In one story, we see Rita leaving him to live with her aunt in Upstate New York, and then his petulance when he finds out she's returned to NYC but in the arms of another. He turns to Daisy in a bit of a desperate move, but also wanting an easier, simpler kind of woman. He and Daisy have a nice evening, but nothing goes beyond that.
In another chapter, Daisy has moved in with a guy the narrator knows named Paul, and they've moved to rural New York State, living in a cabin they're rehabbing. They're dirt-poor, but pretty happy to be playing house and to be out of the heavy-drinking, depressing Greenwich Village scene. The narrator visits them and has a lovely evening, though he wistfully notes that Daisy is lost to him, and that he's not getting Rita back either. He thought about hating them for running away, but instead he decides that he respects them for making a brave move.
In another chapter, he sees Daisy again, but this time by himself. They have a night of flirtation and romance, and Daisy tells him that life with Paul isn't perfect --- that the lack of resources is really tough, and he really needs to land a job in Boston that she's found out about for him. And the narrator is wistful about his lost last chance with Daisy, even a little crazed about it like he was with Rita, but he realizes that life is a journey, and you have to take it as it comes.
The chapters have long musings about art, commitment to art, philosophy of life, and so on. They're rather impenetrable and stilted for our modern ear, but if you read them a few times, you'll get some interesting. points. A lot of it is a man maturing in his thinking, and realizing that there aren't a lot of black-or-white decisions in this world. As an example, his understanding of Daisy evolves over the period of those few years, as he realizes that the first context in which he saw her with her lover Ray was one aspect in which she was weak, but then with her lover Paul she was more content and equal, and with him she explains how she tried to be free and the limitations she encountered.
Anyway, this is a long review, but a couple more points. First, both of these stories won't sit well with a modern woman. In both, women are objects of men's desire, and not much more. Even Rita is described as "well read in poetry for a woman." Women are muses, if they're lucky. They are chorus girls and hookers and ugly if they're unlucky. The stories are also very old-fashioned in their references to Greek plays and philosophy and other erudite material. Few of us have read that stuff, and almost none of us have actual, immediate recall of any of it. This undoubtedly undermines the strength of the references.
The other thing is that there's a surprising level of relevance and resonance to today, despite the stilted language, antiquated attitude towards women, and so on. First, there's a funny complaint about gentrification of the Village, a tale we hear every decade about NYC. Second, the women are fairly forward-acting for their era, such as the girl in the first story who's had more sex than the boy, or Daisy and Rita dangling one lover after another. Third, there are nice digressions about Dostoevsky, enough so that I'm going to look next at a biography of him and then read a novel or two.
And ultimately, it's that feeling of another world, and one intensely lived, as it would be by a Dostoevsky character, that is the strength of both of these stories. That eternal story of a young man trying to find meaning in the world carries through nearly 100 years after these stories were written. It's a timeless tale, and it works here.
"Galahad" is about a high schooler named Hart Foster who is being raised in the righteous, mighty Christian tradition of the YMCA of the time. It's a world incomprehensible in modern America, except perhaps for fundamentalist Christians. it has a bit of humor and a bit of irony, but it's not a story that would be published today, though maybe it was innovative and risque in its day.
Hart is a high school junior about to be named a leader for his senior year. He has imbibed all the pretensions of his religious boarding school in suburban New York -- be manly, stunt your sexual desires, think of women as weak but also pure. Don't drink, smoke or gamble. There's a sly scene in which two men lecture the boys about all the evils to avoid, and the third-person narrator observes that they hadn't even thought about (maybe not even heard of those things), but now the lecture put them in their minds.
Anyway, Hart is taken to the home of the senior year's leader during a break from boarding school, and the guy's sister makes moves on him. She climbs in bed with him, indicating she's done this before, and everything will be all right. This is the stuff of a hundred raunchy movie comedies since the 1970s, but here's it's not played for laughs. The guy says no, and that he wants her and him to be pure. He regrets it an hour later, of course, but she's frosty to him. He tells her a couple of weeks later that he loves her, but she's moved on to other guys, and he realizes at the end that you can't overcome certain desires, and maybe you shouldn't even try. A coming of age story, without a consummation.
"I Thought of Daisy" is a short novel, whereas "Galahad" is a long short story. It's also a coming of age story, but with lots of (offstage) sex.
I don't see why it's title and descriptions say it's focused on Daisy. To me, it really is focused on the "I," a guy whose name I can't remember. He is a fledgling writer, having survived 2 years of infantry duty in WWII. He falls in with the progressive crowd in the Village and is wowed at first by their intellect, their strong views, their unconventionality. Think "Gatsby," but bohemian, not the Hamptons. Tons of drinking, brazen women, educated people showing off.
Anyway, in this story the guy is very thoughtful, and he spends a lot of time trying to figure out people's motivations, particularly what inspires their art or other vocation, and what has interfered with that striving (because he isn't getting anywhere with his goal of writing a novel or writing good poetry). He pals around with a communist named Hugo, and through him meets the big-drinking, loud-talking Greenwich Village boho scene. At one party he meets within a matter of minutes Daisy, a lovely, petite former chorus girl, and then Rita, a well-known poet who's perhaps 10 years older than he is. He doesn't think much of Daisy, except to feel sorry for her stuck with a boorish husband, Ray, who embarrasses her at the party. (Turns out she never married Ray.)
Much to his shock, he leaves the party with Rita, spends a wonderful evening drinking and discussing poetry, and winds up having a date with her two days later.
Over the next several chapters -- each of which is about 50 pages -- we see the same people interacting. But their lives change over time, and the narrator's perspective about them and himself changes, too. First, he has Rita as a lover, and while we don't see their time together, we find out in retrospect that it was pretty tense and dysfunctional. Rita has had a lot of lovers, somewhat due to her "live for the day" attitude, and somewhat due to her constant need for financial support. In one story, we see Rita leaving him to live with her aunt in Upstate New York, and then his petulance when he finds out she's returned to NYC but in the arms of another. He turns to Daisy in a bit of a desperate move, but also wanting an easier, simpler kind of woman. He and Daisy have a nice evening, but nothing goes beyond that.
In another chapter, Daisy has moved in with a guy the narrator knows named Paul, and they've moved to rural New York State, living in a cabin they're rehabbing. They're dirt-poor, but pretty happy to be playing house and to be out of the heavy-drinking, depressing Greenwich Village scene. The narrator visits them and has a lovely evening, though he wistfully notes that Daisy is lost to him, and that he's not getting Rita back either. He thought about hating them for running away, but instead he decides that he respects them for making a brave move.
In another chapter, he sees Daisy again, but this time by himself. They have a night of flirtation and romance, and Daisy tells him that life with Paul isn't perfect --- that the lack of resources is really tough, and he really needs to land a job in Boston that she's found out about for him. And the narrator is wistful about his lost last chance with Daisy, even a little crazed about it like he was with Rita, but he realizes that life is a journey, and you have to take it as it comes.
The chapters have long musings about art, commitment to art, philosophy of life, and so on. They're rather impenetrable and stilted for our modern ear, but if you read them a few times, you'll get some interesting. points. A lot of it is a man maturing in his thinking, and realizing that there aren't a lot of black-or-white decisions in this world. As an example, his understanding of Daisy evolves over the period of those few years, as he realizes that the first context in which he saw her with her lover Ray was one aspect in which she was weak, but then with her lover Paul she was more content and equal, and with him she explains how she tried to be free and the limitations she encountered.
Anyway, this is a long review, but a couple more points. First, both of these stories won't sit well with a modern woman. In both, women are objects of men's desire, and not much more. Even Rita is described as "well read in poetry for a woman." Women are muses, if they're lucky. They are chorus girls and hookers and ugly if they're unlucky. The stories are also very old-fashioned in their references to Greek plays and philosophy and other erudite material. Few of us have read that stuff, and almost none of us have actual, immediate recall of any of it. This undoubtedly undermines the strength of the references.
The other thing is that there's a surprising level of relevance and resonance to today, despite the stilted language, antiquated attitude towards women, and so on. First, there's a funny complaint about gentrification of the Village, a tale we hear every decade about NYC. Second, the women are fairly forward-acting for their era, such as the girl in the first story who's had more sex than the boy, or Daisy and Rita dangling one lover after another. Third, there are nice digressions about Dostoevsky, enough so that I'm going to look next at a biography of him and then read a novel or two.
And ultimately, it's that feeling of another world, and one intensely lived, as it would be by a Dostoevsky character, that is the strength of both of these stories. That eternal story of a young man trying to find meaning in the world carries through nearly 100 years after these stories were written. It's a timeless tale, and it works here.
January 7, 2018
This is one of those books that justifies being well-read. If you've read enough Dostoyevsky, and Shakespeare and all the other authors and thinkers referenced in this novel, than the bits where the characters are tossing grand ideas around make sense, because you understand what ideas they are reacting to or utilizing. Otherwise much of this book will probably be a bit tedious. Actually I read the second half twice, because the first time 'round I found the characters too tedious to focus on very closely. They were all acting so unbearably 'young' and stupid and I was dealing with family holiday stuff and had no patience for such dumb characters and their dramas.
Actually the second time through, I liked this book. It is a bit pessimistic and the characters don't really find happy endings, just some sort of acceptance of their messed-up lives, very relevant to my own generation and most people younger than I am, but rather depressing still.
This book follows a young man and a young woman from the party where they first meet, through to perhaps where they last hang out together, and in each section the man's understanding of the woman changes, in part because the woman changes to suit whoever she is dating, but also because the man changes and sees the world around him differently each time.
If you like books about ideas and self-discovery, or books about parties in New York in the 1920's, you might like this book.
Actually the second time through, I liked this book. It is a bit pessimistic and the characters don't really find happy endings, just some sort of acceptance of their messed-up lives, very relevant to my own generation and most people younger than I am, but rather depressing still.
This book follows a young man and a young woman from the party where they first meet, through to perhaps where they last hang out together, and in each section the man's understanding of the woman changes, in part because the woman changes to suit whoever she is dating, but also because the man changes and sees the world around him differently each time.
If you like books about ideas and self-discovery, or books about parties in New York in the 1920's, you might like this book.
October 10, 2014
A well-written novel that is partly inspired by Proust, but less dreamlike and more natural in nature. Two quotes that resonated with me for different reasons:
From page 6: "In college, I had read of the Russia of the Tsars as one reads about the Middle Ages; but now I had been forced to recognize, even among Americans, and as one of the strongest instincts of society, that horrifying contempt of a dominating class for the lives of those they dominate. So that, by the time I had got out of the Army, I had required a scorn for the pursuit of money, position or rank: the people who cared for such things seemed now to me sinister or childish. It appeared impossible ever again to accept conventional values complacently, to acquiesce in the prosperous inertia and the provincial ignorance of America. One could never go back again now to living indifferently or trivially; one was afraid of lending oneself to some offense against that unhappy humanity which one shared with other men."
From page 209: "I looked for the moon, but it was gone. I craned around the side of the couch and saw it low, vaporish and gray, as if dissolving in the ichor of dawn."
From page 6: "In college, I had read of the Russia of the Tsars as one reads about the Middle Ages; but now I had been forced to recognize, even among Americans, and as one of the strongest instincts of society, that horrifying contempt of a dominating class for the lives of those they dominate. So that, by the time I had got out of the Army, I had required a scorn for the pursuit of money, position or rank: the people who cared for such things seemed now to me sinister or childish. It appeared impossible ever again to accept conventional values complacently, to acquiesce in the prosperous inertia and the provincial ignorance of America. One could never go back again now to living indifferently or trivially; one was afraid of lending oneself to some offense against that unhappy humanity which one shared with other men."
From page 209: "I looked for the moon, but it was gone. I craned around the side of the couch and saw it low, vaporish and gray, as if dissolving in the ichor of dawn."
July 9, 2012
I always end up picking out books like these because the words "Greenwich Village" and "1920's" pop out to me on jacket blurb. I find myself reading the book and enjoying small details about daily life in the city back then, and believe me, this book was full of them, but it wasn't enough to keep me interested for more than a few pages. I finished the book so I wouldn't feel like too much of a Philistine, but it was a chore getting through the long passages of the narrator's trenchant internal monologues. Dude, keep it for your Xanga.
May 3, 2017
Simply brilliant with its brilliance increasing with each subsequent read.
Edmund Wilson gives you a window into the world of authors, poets, and intellectuals in 1920s Greenwich Village, NYC.
A series of vignettes that all come together in one sweet moment in the final pages.
Edmund Wilson gives you a window into the world of authors, poets, and intellectuals in 1920s Greenwich Village, NYC.
A series of vignettes that all come together in one sweet moment in the final pages.
April 30, 2020
This is a very writerly novel, I thought. The good thing about that is it is artfully constructed and often fluently and beautifully written, although sometimes Wilson gets a bit carried away with overly long, convoluted sentences. And the main negative about writerly novels is that you are always aware of the superstructure of the novel: I felt the author earnestly tugging at my sleeve and inviting me to contemplate the brilliance of his literary erection. The story is indeed an absorbing one, but…I don’t really care too much either for Mr Wilson or his milieu. This clearly autobiographical novel presents us with a hero who is clever without being deep, well educated without being wise, and somewhat selfish, sexist and spoilt. Greenwich village fills me with the same kind of horror that Bloomsbury or Hampstead does. (But then I am only a peasant from the rural English shires). Also I can’t quite forgive Wilson for his hatred of Tolkien. Yes, JRRT had many literary faults, but I’m afraid that if there is to be a bitch fight between them, I feel – and please excuse my vulgarity – that Wilson brings a fart to a shit fight.
July 26, 2023
EW did not sit down and plan this book out in advance. After he lived for a time, he selected certain excerpts from his diaries to write a thinly fictionalized novel that reflects his early experiences of bohemian New York, artists and other creatives who went on to become celebrated, his romances with them and his own reflecting about what writers can accomplish. He is succinct in his descriptions and an excellent visualist. HW captures himself on his many layers of his mental interactions in his early life. The pace of the book shifts a few times which on reflection, I enjoyed.
July 5, 2024
This could have been a classic novel about life in Greenwich Village during the 1920’s, but Wilson’s penchant to be a critic interferes with his abilities as a novelist. He writes some of the best scenes of NY Jazz Age parties and brings to life his friends Edna St. Vincent Millay and John Dos Passos, but then he will launch into a several page discourse on Dostoevsky or Shakespeare, effectively deflating the reader’s interest. When he’s good, he’s very good, though, and this is a near miss.
July 29, 2019
Funny little book. Funny how not much changes, turns out 100 years ago young people were getting drunk, hooking up, upcycling, and trying to figure it all out!
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