Thread: MobileRead December 2012 Run-Off Vote
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Old 11-30-2012, 05:31 PM   #83
Hamlet53
Nameless Being
 
If we are posting Goodreads reviews selected for supporting a point of view regarding Ethan Frome . . .

Quote:
If you're looking for a punch in the gut that matches the solar plexus thumping you got from "Of Mice and Men," this is where you want to be.

Reading the other reviews that are listed here, I'm glad I never got assigned this in school. That apparently ruins the book.

Spoiler:
Ethan's easy to judge. He's not perfect, and he blames fate for his situation when he should be blaming himself. Sure, he grew up on the Baltic-Avenue part of the board, and he has to farm, and his wife's a witch and stuff. But nobody forced him to marry her. What's interesting is that Frome's imperfections don't seem to be there to make some moral point. Here's a novel from 1911 that's not a morality play. His humanity works to make something better than perfect - to get all in-your-face intellectual jerk about it, Wharton wrote a wabi-sabi character - he's better than perfect for his imperfections.


It's like, MacBeth is all ambitious to show us that's wrong and that's why he dies, Hetty Sorrel is all slutty to show us that's wrong and that's why she dies, the camp counselors were all not-virgin-y to show us that's wrong and that's why they died. Ethan Frome's all put-upon and not pro-active, but it just is. It doesn't feel constructed - he feels organic.

Or maybe I just really related to Ethan Frome. Either way, it's a great read, and you learn that 'sledding' used to be called 'coasting.


Quote:
Edith Wharton is certainly one of my favorite author. I remember I was first captivated by her short story called “Roman Fever” and then amazed by “The age of Innocence”. What fascinates me about her is how well she narrates her story. The language may seem easy compared to other works in her time, but is certainly beautiful and flowing. Her works is always a fast-moving page-turner for me.

Spoiler:
I just love how she describes the bleak-winter-rural area of New England in "Ethan Frome". The atmosphere she describes reflects Ethan’s inner conflict. To some people this story maybe very depressing, but I guess she masterly tries to deliver her point about how unhappiness can be caused by the conservative-social convention in her time. Ethan, from the beginning is a character who just could not extricate himself from these moral-social conventions. The ending was pretty shocking, but this again got me wondering in thoughts. Ethan still could not escape his wife which can be seen as a metaphor for that conservative convention she—Wharton was trying to picture.


This book is interesting to read for those who are interested in experiencing a different atmosphere in Edith Wharton’s works. From the New York high society in The Age of Innocence, to a European ‘air’ in Roman Fever, I found myself still enjoying this rural-wintry scene in Ethan Frome. Very satisfying indeed. I’ll be looking forward in reading her other works.
Also I would have to comment that the reviews that Jon posted that compare Ethan Frome to Lord of the Flies or Wharton to Nathaniel Hawthorne, well that just tells me that Wharton is an excellent author and that Ethan Frome is indeed a classic. At least I here stated from the beginning that Ethan Frome was a view of the depressing life of a man who lived a life of quiet desperation, but it is a well written view of that. It would not have been my first choice—my first three choices in order would have been: Quo Vadis, Cold Comfort Farm, Little Women—but my last choice would have been I, Robot.

I know Jon feels that he was cheated when Cloud Atlas was voted the selection for the SciFi month, but it is more SciFi than I, Robot is a classic. Speaking of which here are some selected Goodreads reviews of I, Robot:

Quote:
This rarely happens to me: I just could not finish this book. I found it unbearable and about half-way through I really did not care about how these stories would continue. In my opinion, it is incredibly poorly written and frankly, I found these robot stories dull and boring content-wise as well. I read that this is supposed to be one of the classics of sci-fi. I don't have a lot of experience with that genre but if this book is supposed to be one of the best, I doubt the genre is for me.
I'll now go back to Kazantakis' 'the last temptation'. This, for once, is a very well written and inspiring story... more my cup of tea, I must say!


Quote:
this old chestnut of the genre is as unevenly a mixed bag as most multiple-author short story anthologies usually are. though there are plenty of interesting ideas and not a few literary gems stashed in here, time isn't being kind to this collection. stories get rather repetitive if read back-to-back: I don't actually need an explanation of the laws of robotics in each one, and many characters' voices sound very much the same. female characters are few and far between, and when one has a position of authority, she's either a "cold, unattractive spinster," or "just a poor woman" doing a job no man would want. if you think the 50s-ish idiom is quirkily cute, this has to be a fun romp, but for those of us that think it's hokey, well, let's hope Asimov got better with future installations.

So anyway all whining aside, Ethan Frome won by a convincing margin. I read this book recently enough that I feel I can participate in the discussion without having to read it again. So once I finish The Desert of Love I will start on Quo Vadis.
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