The Turmoil

The Growth Trilogy #1

by Booth Tarkington

A familiar midwestern novel in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis, The Turmoil was the best-selling novel of 1915. It is set in a small, quiet city--never named but closely resembling the author’s hometown of Indianapolis--that is quickly being transformed into a bustling, money-making nest of competitors more or less overrun by “the worshippers of Bigness.”
“There is a midland city in the heart of fair, open country, a dirty and wonderful city nesting dingily in the fog of its own smoke,” begins The Turmoil, the first volume of Pulitzer Prize-winner Booth Tarkington’s “Growth” trilogy. A narrative of loss and change, a love story, and a warning about the potential evils of materialism, the book chronicles two midwestern families trying to cope with the onset of industrialization.
Tarkington believed that culture could flourish even as the country was increasingly fueled by material progress. The Turmoil, the first great success of his career, tells the intertwined stories of two families: the Sheridans, whose integrity wanes as their wealth increases, and the Vertrees, who remain noble but impoverished. Linked by the romance between a Sheridan son and a Vertrees daughter, the story of the two families provides a dramatic view of what America was like on the verge of a new order.
An introduction by Lawrence R. Rodgers places the novel squarely in the social and cultural context of the Progressive Era. The book also features illustrations by C. E. Chambers.
 

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, American, Novels, 20th Century, Literature

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1915

About the author

Newton Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams. He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction/Novel more than once, along with William Faulkner, John Updike and Colson Whitehead. Although he is little read now, in the 1910s and 1920s he was considered America's greatest living author.

Reviews

[Marcus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Turmoil because it's the first in a three book series, the second of which is The Magnificent Ambersons, a Pulitzer winner. I'd also previously read Tarkington's Penrod which became one of my all-time favorites. So, how did The Turmoil stack up? It's not hilarious as Penrod, though there are some really funny parts. It's also not as much of a vocabulary lesson, but it definitely stands on its own as a book worth reading. It took some time to grow on me, but grow on me it did, and by the end I, who have maybe cried at the ending of three books in my entire life, couldn't hold back a tear or two.

The Turmoil was written well into the Industrial Revolution and as such, the story revolves heavily around business and industry. In some ways this book reminded me of Garrett's The Driver. The themes are similar and both have love stories intertwined. Only The Driver is clearly a pro-capitalism, pro-business and anti-intervention book. The Turmoil seems to take the opposite stance, but is more subtle. It heavily criticizes the downsides of the constant striving for "bigness," both on the land and on those who are wrapped up in the struggle, but it's not an out and out disparagement of business and growth. The theme of the book is actually more about work versus art, love and beauty, or perhaps to state it more concisely, the role of work in life.

The main character is Bibbs, the sickly son of the recently made, rich and powerful businessman Mr. Sheridan. Bibbs is a poet at heart and has no natural inclination for business, preferring instead to sit, think and write. In his own words, "The rooster and the prosperous worker: they are born, they grub, they love; they grub and love grubbing; they grub and they die. Neither knows beauty; neither knows knowledge." Bibb's character is almost cartoonish in his unflinching aversion for work and his love of poetry. His father is the opposite. He can't see any purpose for having children other than as heirs to his business. Work is his god, his greatest goal and highest virtue is "to make two blades o' grass grow where one grew before!" Bibbs to him is "a mighty funny boy, and some ways I reckon he's pretty near as hard to understand as the Bible." The book is the complex interplay between these two characters, Sheridan's other children, and their, now poor, old-money neighbors, particularly their daughter, Mary.

It's a beautiful and relevant story. Despite the focus on business, it is a story about humanity; our need to provide, our innate desire for growth and the value of the precious series of moments that we call life.

"Ugly I am but never forget that I AM a god! The highest should serve, but so long as you worship me for my own sake I will not serve you. It is man who makes me ugly, by his worship of me. If man would let me serve him, I should be beautiful!"

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I found myself lying awake at 2 o'clock this morning thinking about this book, I realized that it really deserved five stars in my estimation. I have revised my rating accordingly. There is a lot going on in the story, and much to ponder. I really like the characters, and I just know that I won't be able to wait for a group read in December to read Volume 2 of the trilogy. For me, it has been one of those surprise reads, and a very pleasant surprise at that!

I listened to a collaborative Librivox recording. Most of the narrators who participated were very good. The two men who read the majority of the book were excellent. I am glad that Volume 2 is also available on Librivox.

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally read in July 2012.

The Turmoil was a novel that I liked moderately the first time I read it, but after mulling it over a good deal and reading it a second time, it has firmly ensconced itself as my second-favorite book by Booth Tarkington. Written first of what he would later group together and call his Growth trilogy, it is set chronologically after The Magnificent Ambersons, in what we're given to understand is the same nameless "midland city" (likely based on Tarkington's native city of Indianapolis), now in the full grip and roar of the industrial age. At the center of the novel is the Sheridan family, wealthy owners of a business empire worth millions. Its plot focuses around sensitive youngest son Bibbs Sheridan—the sickly one and the "odd one" of the family, who hates the noise and smoke and rush and greed of the city, and wants no part of his family's business. Family patriarch James Sheridan Sr., meanwhile, is exactly the opposite—a memorable, larger-than-life character, noisy and blunt and boisterous, who loves the noise and smoke and the continual battle to build bigger and own more as much as Bibbs hates it. Completely incapable of understanding Bibbs' feelings or his wish to be a writer instead, Sheridan is bent on molding his incomprehensible youngest into his own image, and oblivious to the cracks appearing in the foundation of his family.

Next door to the Sheridans' new mansion live the Vertrees family, the remnants of one of the city's "old families," whom Sheridan's daughter Edith and daughter-in-law Sibyl are anxious to cultivate in order to "get in with the right people" in society, something the nouveau-riche Sheridans have yet to accomplish. Unbeknownst to them, the Vertreeses' fortunes have declined and they're now living on the very edge of poverty—their only hope is for daughter Mary to charm and marry Jim Sheridan, the oldest of the clan, something she sets out to do as a deliberate sacrifice for her parents' sake. But a self-revelation on Mary's part and an unexpected catastrophe combine to put an end to this...and in the aftermath, a friendship gradually grows between Mary and Bibbs, a friendship that inspires him with the will to live and to endure the work his father has pushed him into. Yet trouble still lies ahead, as Sibyl now cherishes a grudge against Mary and intends to exact bitter revenge on her...

When I started to read The Turmoil for the first time, I thought it would be hard to take a book seriously with a protagonist named Bibbs. But after just a few chapters I had forgotten all about his name (which is explained early in the story), and by the middle of the second reading I just loved him. Tarkington demonstrated in other books his ability to create characters you want to smack upside the head, but here he proves an equal ability to create, in Bibbs Sheridan and Mary Vertrees, characters you love and whom your heart aches for, so that you long for things to turn out well for them. Even Sheridan Sr., exasperating as he is, you can never really hate; there are moments, especially toward the end, where you feel a kind of fondness for him in his bluntness and rough good intentions. All the characters, good and bad, are drawn with the same keen, understated insight that is probably what I like best about Tarkington's writing, and the story is not without its moments of joy and humor in the midst of the drama.

I think what may have left me feeling a little ambivalent on that first reading was that Tarkington doesn't seem to pull a definite conclusion out of the themes of the book—he doesn't say or give us to understand whether it's Bibbs or his father who is definitively right, or what the solution to the chaos of industrialization is. Considering this now, though, I wonder if that's because Tarkington was living and writing in the very midst of that era: maybe he honestly didn't know. He offers a suggestion of hope in Bibbs' imaginings about the future near the end, a note which rings a bit false a hundred years later, when we can see it didn't quite turn out that way. But unlike other, "greater" novelists, he does one thing definitely right: he brings his characters' story to a fitting, satisfying resolution. If there is a message of any kind in The Turmoil, the one I sensed was that it's possible to find personal fulfillment and happiness even in the midst of a chaotic society. The final scene of the book has to be one of my favorite book endings now; it's just so beautiful, and...perfect.

[Leo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I've only read two books by Booth Tarkington and I truly feel like an author I really enjoy and want to read much more of. I found the story very enjoyable kinda like an "old timely reality show" in a book format and I'm definitely not complaining over that.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though The Turmoil was not one of the two Pulitzer-winning novels by Booth Tarkington, it might as well have been. I have read Alice Adams and The Magnificent Ambersons, and they are certainly deserving winners, but I see little difference in caliber between them and The Turmoil, a thoroughly satisfying and thrilling read. The story is set in the early years of the twentieth century when American business was booming and big. Tarkington frequently mentions “the bigness” of business and claims in his novel that the pursuit of “bigness” is a worthy endeavor.

At its heart, The Turmoil is an extraordinary love story that brings two families together. The Sheridan parents have four children, sons Jim, Roscoe, and the fragile, timid, and frightened Bibbs, and daughter Edie. Father Sheridan is determined to see his sons succeed him in business—that is his only raison d’être. Jim and Roscoe are proving to be competent chips of the old block, whereas Bibbs’s literary bent compels him to set his sights on reading books and writing poetry. This conflict in his nature has him shipped off to a sanatorium for mental salvage and rescue. The Sheridan fortunes are in ascendancy and it seems as if nothing can impede them.

The Vertrees family fortunes, on the other hand, are in decline to such an extent that their only salvation might come if daughter Mary marries into wealth. Mary is a bewitching and complicated character. Though high-principled, she cannot bear that her parents are headed for financial ruin. Accordingly, she sets her sights on Jim Sheridan, who sees a beautiful, accomplished, and cultured prospective wife.

However, a series of tragic events are inflicted on the Sheridan family. Not only is Jim’s marriage thwarted, but Roscoe and Edie trigger additional explosive drama that threatens to irrevocably sunder the entire family. In parallel, as the Vertrees are reduced to selling prized family possessions to pay bills from butchers and bakers, an unlikely yet pure friendship blossoms between Mary and the nervous, twitchy Bibbs.

But nor is everything smooth sailing for Mary and Bibbs. As Jim and Roscoe’s futures move violently, tragically, and scandalously away from their father’s well-laid plans, Sheridan resorts to refashioning his youngest son’s very nature by force and intimidation to be his successor in the family businesses. Bibbs’s initial inadequacy for the task is miraculously transformed by Mary’s attention and friendship.

Readers may be forgiven for thinking that Tarkington has laid necessary groundwork for a speedy happy-ever-after ending, but the author has many surprising and delicious twists and turns in the road. Readers will find themselves irresistibly caught up in the story to the extent that they will race to the tender, thrilling, and totally credible denouement. Every character, right down to the Sheridan servants is brilliantly and memorably portrayed: they will remain in readers’ minds long after the book’s end.

Given that Tarkington was considered one of America’s greatest living novelists of the 1920s, I’m not sure why I haven’t read more than three of his novels. I intend to change that statistic forthwith!

[Note. The Turmoil is the first book in the Growth Trilogy; the other two are The Magnificent Ambersons, and The Midlander.]

[Charles Haywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Turmoil” is a book little read nowadays, and would probably be a book never read except for Orson Welles. Its author, Booth Tarkington, was a famous Indiana writer of the early 20th Century. Nowadays, when literary life is dominated by coastal authors, or those who want to move to the coasts, and the ecosystem around them, and the Midwest is merely “flyover country,” to be ignored or denigrated, this seems odd. But it wasn’t that long ago that in all aspects of life, from literature to politics, the United States had much more diversity—that is, diversity in its real, non-bastardized, sense, of an organic system of differing people making different actual contributions to society. And in “The Turmoil,” the geographic and philosophical diversity of the author and the novel’s setting adds greatly to its interest to the modern reader.

As far as Orson Welles, “The Turmoil” is the first of three novels forming a loose trilogy, nicknamed the Growth Trilogy. The second novel, “The Magnificent Ambersons,” is much better known today, largely because Orson Welles filmed it, and his film was butchered by the studio, creating the legend of a “lost” Welles film. This has kept the second book somewhat in the public literary mind, and some small percentage of those who read “The Magnificent Ambersons,” like me, then choose to read the other “Growth” books. Of course, I’m from Indiana, so Booth Tarkington is also somewhat in the backdrop of my life, making me even more likely to read these books. Purdue University has a dormitory named “Tarkington Hall,” which my father, who taught at Purdue, was associated with. And my mother read some of Tarkington’s “Penrod” stories to me as a child. Nonetheless, these books are worth reading for anyone, not just those with regional interests.

The story itself is a typically American one of the Industrial Revolution. Similar themes appear in other novels, most notably Edith Wharton’s “The Age Of Innocence” (although the comparison shouldn’t be stretched—in Wharton’s book, the focus is on the moral standards of the old upper class order, and here the focus is the daily works and lives of the quickly changing gentry class). The basic theme of “The Turmoil” is the erosion of the social dominance of old families and old money as a result of breakneck, helter-skelter industrialization, the “turmoil” of the title. While the city in which the novel takes place is not named, it’s Indianapolis, where Tarkington lived, a town (unlike rivertowns like St. Louis or Cleveland) initially based almost exclusively on farming. The novel takes place around 1915.

Apparently until the turn of the century, the social hierarchy in Indianapolis was dominated by a squirearchy—basically, wealthy farming families who, or whose children, dominated business life in the town but maintained some connection to the land. What they most definitely did not do was engage directly in industry, except perhaps as passive investors. This contrasts drives the plot of the book.

“The Turmoil” centers around two families—the upstart Sheridan family, wealthy from unspecified industry, headed by a hard-driving and under-educated patriarch who extols “Bigness” for its own sake; and the contrasting Vertrees family, a down-on-their-luck but socially prominent family of the old squirearchy. The story revolves around the accommodations the Vertrees family must make to the new order of things, in part by seeking an advantageous marriage, and the internal family conflicts of the Sheridan family, in particular the mostly failing efforts of the Sheridan patriarch to mold his three sons into models of himself. The characters are generally well drawn with considerable depth, and their interactions are believable. Running throughout is a sense of some sadness at the passing of the old world, tempered by an understanding of the inevitability of it all.

“The Turmoil” is an interesting book for a variety of reasons. First, it’s a view of a vanished time, which was the present time of the author. Tarkington’s focus was the people of Indianapolis and the impact of the present time on them. To us, that’s interesting, because his time is now the past, and seeing how people saw things themselves at the time can be fascinating. Second, the book is a vision of a time when people in Indianapolis, and other regional centers, could legitimately think of themselves as nationally relevant. Today, political and even more cultural, life is wholly dominated by East and West coast elites and their hangers-on. When seven of the ten counties in the country with the highest per capita income are contiguous to the District of Columbia, we can see that what happens in flyover country doesn’t matter. What national future our current polarization will create isn’t relevant here, though it’s likely to be Not Good. What is relevant here is that the characters of this novel, or at least some of them, see an unlimited future, for both themselves and their small city, in a way that would be inconceivable in the limited horizons of today.

Last, “The Turmoil” contains a lot of insight into the social problems of industrialization other than those emphasized today to the exclusion of all others, namely the travails of industrial workers. We all know about Sinclair’s “The Jungle”; we are all subjected to constant lectures on the plight of workers and the lower classes generally in the Industrial Revolution. Occasionally we hear about the wealthy—Carnegie, Morgan, and so on. But we never, ever hear about the gentry classes and the personal impact of the Industrial Revolution on them. Those classes are the real backbone of any society, yet they are ignored. And their turmoil is what this book is about.

My only major criticism of the book is that it contains fairly constant cringe-worthy stereotypes of black people, who only appear as servants to the Sheridan family, in essence as comic relief. Indiana was never a hotbed of racism (the KKK was powerful in the 1920s, but focused on Catholics and immigrants, not black people), and the stereotypes are patronizing rather than nasty. But still, they’re jarring to the modern reader, and effectively detract from the story. But if you can gloss over those parts, “The Turmoil” is a highly rewarding read.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Turmoil is a fascinating book during a transitional time during American history. The novel follows the Sheridan family, beneficiaries of the tail end of the Industrial Revolution and the real upswing of capitalism in the United States. The story centers around patriarch Sheridan's relationship with his sons, particularly sickly black-sheep Bibbs who returns from several months' stay at a sanitarium for an "illness" (aka, he's just different.) Sheridan wants his sons to share his enthusiasm and success for the family's businesses and abhors Bibbs' desire to become a writer by trade.

There's a lot at play examining those who value commerce and status over relationships, or those who value relationships as a means to achieve a particular status- the toll "the turmoil" can take on every aspect of our lives. Traditional views of masculinity are challenged, as are familial relationships and legacies. It's thematically rich especially considering how short it is, and much of its messaging remains relevant to life today.

It does include some racist language and stereotypes, so if you are someone who holds the author to the norms of the present day, I would maybe skip this one.

Tarkington's prose is very straightforward making it easy to read, and his characters are all well written, keeping your attention as the novel continually explores the dynamics between them all. It's a really engaging narrative that kept my attention very easily throughout.

I'm very much looking forward to reading The Magnificent Ambersons!

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Turmoil” by Booth Tarkington, was the first novel in what would become the “Growth” trilogy. Originally published in 1915, “The Turmoil” takes place in a fictional mid-west city which is never named, but which is probably modeled on Indianapolis. The name of the trilogy is appropriate, not only because these novels deal with the growth in the country, and the affect of industrialization on society, but also with Tarkington’s growth as a writer which appears to have come from his taking time off after writing “The Guest of Quesnay” and resulted in novels that were much fresher and more innovative.

The focus of the novel is on the Sheridan family, which has recently come to wealth through the strong business practices of the father (James), who puts his business before everything else. Other members of the family are the weak wife, the eldest son James Jr. (i.e. Jim) - who is being groomed to replace his father, the middle child Roscoe - who is being treated like a runner-up, a daughter Edith - who is pushing to make the family part of society, and the youngest son Bibbs - who is a disappointment to his father, because he has a much different outlook on what is important in life. It is Bibbs who is the main character of the novel. Other key characters include Sibyl Sheridan – the wife of Roscoe, Bobby Lamhorn – the love interest of Edith, and Mary Vertreese, the daughter of the Vertreese family, which is an old and prestigious family in the area, but one which is keeping up appearances as they are almost without money.

There are still some issues with the racial interaction between the Sheridans and their servants which some will find offensive. That being said, this novel doesn’t feel as dated as some of Tarkington’s other works, though it is clearly a piece representative of the period in which it was written. The challenges that face Bibbs, and the changes he goes through are like a mini-representation of the changes facing the country with the impact of industrialization. The transformation of Bibbs is an interesting one, and doesn’t follow the path one would expect. For a while, it looks as if Bibbs way of life would come out as the strongest, as tragedy and circumstances cause big changes in the Sheridan family. But Tarkington doesn’t allow things to be that easy, and instead Bibbs changes his ways to take on the role that his father needs. There is certainly sadness when Bibbs makes the break from his old interests, but his transformation is a strong one, and while he couldn’t have survived in this new life at the start of the novel, at the end he thrives.

Another interesting aspect of the novel is the difference between the old prestigious family, the Vertreeses, and the new powerful and wealthy family, the Sheridans. The Vertreeses are trying to hide the desperate financial condition of their family, and the pairing of their daughter to James Sheridan Jr. is seen by Mr. and Mrs. Vertreese as a necessary evil to get them out of their difficulties. Initially Mary Vertreese is willing to go along with her role, but it is the impact that Bibbs has on her that changes her mind and has her change her mind. As the novel continues, it is clear that it is Mary and Bibbs that are drawn to each other, though they are not willing to admit it, especially Bibbs.

Tarkington takes no position of what is right or wrong in the conflict between the old and the new, or the industrialization of society. He treats it as simply a change which is inevitable and one which is going to have impact on society and the family. I don’t believe this is the best writing that Tarkington had done in his career up to this point, though it is close. On the other hand, it is among the best of his story concepts thus far, and the continuation of that “Growth” concept would earn him the Pultizer Prize for “The Magnificent Ambersons” a few years later. I’m rounding this one up to four stars.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Turmoil is the first of Booth Tarkington's "Growth" trilogy, which also includes his Pulitzer Prize winning 1918 novel, The Magnificent Ambersons. The Turmoil takes place in a place of urban sprawl when the negative affects of city life are all around the inhabitants including pollution, the obsession with money and bigness, and the apathetic concern for human love and life. Regardless of the negative impact of the filthy, dirty, sprawling urbanism, a light of hope shines through which may apply to us all no matter our circumstances.

Tarkington's characters are well crafted, but not so one dimensional as many novels we read today. His characters are complex in that they change, and seem to evolve depending on their environment and circumstances. Consequently, they are not predictable because we never know how they will act in specific situations, making the story more interesting.

Probably, however, what I admired most from The Turmoil, was Tarkington's philosophy on big growth, or "Bigness" as he calls it, and how it creates a cancer that not only permeates our environment, but grows within each of us. In many ways, Tarkington not only personifies Bigness, but also intertwines it with Christian faith by showing how the idols Christians are commanded to not worship, are inadvertently reverenced in every day living through money and power. As an example, through one of his primary characters, he writes, " Give me of thyself, O Bigness:  Power to get more power!  Riches to get more riches!  Give me of thy sweat that I may sweat more!  Give me Bigness to get more Bigness to myself,  O Bigness, for Thine is the Power and the Glory! And there is no end but Bigness, ever and for ever!"

Many may read Tarkington's book and consider it archaic and fluff, but I believe, particularly as I see gigantic homes springing up around me, that the truths he wrote about were not only for his time, but also for our own. Maybe we could take a lesson from those old dusty tomes.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 1915, 3 years before its prequel The Magnificent Ambersons.

The Turmoil (cool title) engaged me from the get-go, with its sardonic panegyric to wealth and "bigness" and its brisk introduction into its world. It takes place in an unnamed Midwestern city (it's Indianapolis) and is, partly, another Tarkington comeuppance tale, another book where you spend the whole time highly annoyed by the characters, swearing you'll never like or forgive them, until the blasted author makes you do just that. I don't know how he does it--or why, really. It's not exactly enjoyable being annoyed. But I guess comeuppance wouldn't be as sweet without it.

The Sheridan family is the embodiment of the town, grown big and powerful yet to its own destruction. With a stubborn passivity, the youngest son Bipps alone refuses to embrace this lifestyle. The fun of the novel is seeing the bullied son's vindication but the author makes it so that neither side is entirely right or wrong, and leaves room for both Bipps and his family to "wake up." Tarkington merges this storyline with a Doctor Thorne-type plot involving the neighbor Mary and her financial difficulties. The idea of new money marrying an old but ruined family to their mutual benefit felt somewhat displaced in this setting, but it's serviceable for the real story Tarkington wants to tell.

“'Extry! Extry!' screamed the newsboys, zig-zagging among the crowds like bats in the dusk.”

Tarkington is a marvelous writer. The book can be a little corny at times, and the oddball main character is not as endearing as he's perhaps meant to be, but it's a fast read and there's a lot of great stuff in here. It's a very relevant novel about the social costs of economic growth. Tarkington is always good at developing his themes in the background, little manifestations of them showing amid the actions of the preoccupied characters. For example when the father is trying to distract himself with the newspaper, he absently skims over headlines that alternate between those of development and the horrible crimes and accidents resulting from development:

“Board Works Approve Big Car-line Extension." "Hold-up Men Injure Two. Man Found in Alley, Skull Fractured." "Sickening Story Told in Divorce Court." "Plan New Eighteen-story Structure." "School-girl Meets Death under Automobile." "Negro Cuts Three. One Dead.”

Much of what the blowhard father says is prophetic. "'I don't know what the world's comin' to with everybody runnin' around squealin', 'The doctor says this,' and, 'The doctor says that'! It makes me sick! How's this country expect to get its Work done if Gurney and all the other old nanny-goats keep up this blattin'—'Oh, oh! Don't lift that stick o' wood; you'll ruin your NERVES!'" I'd love to hear his reaction to mental health days.

When he tells his son "poetry's all right enough in its place—but you leave it to the girls," you see a mindset that has only gotten more widespread as the acceptable labors and pastimes for men have gotten narrower.

Tarkington also raises a rarely discussed yet, for the aspiring writer, crucial issue about work and leisure, with its young protagonist who'd rather do manual labor than make a fortune in business because he fears having no time for his treasured reflections. The book even touches on the US v. Europe, money v. quality-of-life debate. The passages about communism are also interesting (Bibbs, and perhaps Tarkington, can be excused his idealism, coming as it does just two years before the Russian Revolution. However there's no excuse for a metaphor that today would be used to describe "equity" and made me look on Bipps as indeed lame-brained).

“...and that's why we're gettin' bigger every minute, and why THEY'RE gettin' bigger, and why it's all goin' to keep ON gettin' bigger!”

The father is right again. Nothing's changed. Indianapolis may have gotten chewed up and spit out and suffered the fate the book suggests, but other cities and the country at large--this "new Egypt,"as the author calls the US--are next in the process. Nothing's changed, it's just gotten bigger.


Marginalia:

*I'm always interested in fictional libraries. The one in the Sheridan house, compiled by a book dealer and used solely for decoration, includes: Irving, Poe, Cooper, Goldsmith, Scott, Byron, Burns, Longfellow, Tennyson, Hume, Gibbon, Prescott, Thackeray, Dickens, De Musset, Balzac, Gautier, Flaubert, Goethe, Schiller, Dante, and Tasso.

*Some more books, mentioned as belonging to Bibbs: Sartor Resartus, Virginibus Puerisque, Huckleberry Finn, and Afterwhiles [a book of poems in the Midwestern vernacular written by the author of Little Orphan Annie].


Quotes:

*“From all the states the people came; thinly at first, and slowly, but faster and faster in thicker and thicker swarms as the quick years went by. White people came, and black people and brown people and yellow people; the negroes came from the South by the thousands and thousands, multiplying by other thousands and thousands faster than they could die. From the four quarters of the earth the people came, the broken and the unbroken, the tame and the wild—Germans, Irish, Italians, Hungarians, Scotch, Welsh, English, French, Swiss, Swedes, Norwegians, Greeks, Poles, Russian Jews, Dalmatians, Armenians, Rumanians, Servians, Persians, Syrians, Japanese, Chinese, Turks, and every hybrid that these could propagate... The old, leisurely, quizzical look of the faces was lost in something harder and warier; and a cockney type began to emerge discernibly—a cynical young mongrel barbaric of feature, muscular and cunning; dressed in good fabrics..."

*“'It's wonderful where property goes, sometimes. There was ole man Tracy—you remember him, Doc—J. R. Tracy, solid banker. He went into the bank as messenger, seventeen years old; he was president at forty-three, and he built that bank with his life for forty years more. He was down there from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon the day before he died—over eighty!... Well, that ole man used to pass one o' these here turned-up-nose and turned-up-pants cigarette boys on the streets. Never spoke to him, Tracy didn't. Speak to him? God! he wouldn't 'a' coughed on him! He wouldn't 'a' let him clean the cuspidors at the bank! Why, if he'd 'a' just seen him standin' in FRONT the bank he'd 'a' had him run off the street. And yet all Tracy was doin' every day of his life was workin' for that cigarette boy! Tracy thought it was for the bank; he thought he was givin' his life and his life-blood and the blood of his brain for the bank, but he wasn't. It was every bit—from the time he went in at seventeen till he died in harness at eighty-three—it was every last lick of it just slavin' for that turned-up-nose, turned-up-pants cigarette boy. AND TRACY DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HIS NAME! He died, not ever havin' heard it, though he chased him off the front steps of his house once. The day after Tracy died his old-maid daughter married the cigarette—and there AIN'T any Tracy bank any more!'"

*In the same vein: "“The pioneers had begun the work, but in their old age their orators had said for them that they had toiled and risked and sacrificed that their posterity might live in peace and wisdom, enjoying the fruits of the earth. Well, their posterity was here—and there was only turmoil.”

*“The traffic policeman had a hard time, for the people were independent—they retained some habits of the old market-town period, and would cross the street anywhere and anyhow, which not only got them killed more frequently than if they clung to the legal crossings, but kept the motormen, the chauffeurs, and the truck-drivers in a stew of profane nervousness.”

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tarkington won two Pulitzers in his lifetime but neither one was for “The Turmoil.” the first volume of his “growth trilogy.” The writing is uniformly superb, but what is even more fascinating is the author’s sharp rebuke of American business and its negative effect on the environment in the early twentieth century.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody but nobody does the industrialization of mid-western America as well as Booth Tarkington.
He makes tragic poetry out of the soot and machinery that made America BIG. The drive, the greed, the push to be bigger and better - it's all dissected here by a master.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be one of my favorite books.
I’m not sure I can clearly articulate why. It might be the time in my life I read it and how the lives of the characters intertwined with my own.
Tarkington creates amazing characters and an amazing story.
There are themes of life, work, love, art, family and a the need for more and “bigness” that really stuck with me.
I just finished the Magnificent Ambersons and I think I preferred the Turmoil. But I thought they were both great.
As soon as I finished it I wanted to read it again.


“They cited no authorities, and felt the need of none, being themselves the people thus celebrated. And if the thing was questioned, or if it was hinted that there might be one small virtue in which they were not perfect and supreme, they wasted no time examining themselves to see if what the critic said was true, but fell upon him and hooted him and cursed him, for they were sensitive. So Bibbs, learning their ways and walking with them, harkened to the voice of the people and served Bigness with them. For the voice of the people is the voice of their god.”

“Bibbs began to think intently of his father. He perceived, as he had never perceived before, the shadowing of something enormous and indomitable—and lawless; not to be daunted by the will of nature's very self; laughing at the lightning and at wounds and mutilation; conquering, irresistible—and blindly noble. For the first time in his life Bibbs began to understand the meaning of being truly this man's son.”

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am looking forward to reading Booth Tarkington's "The Magnificent Ambersons" having seen the movie several times but after hearing that novel was in "The Growth Trilogy", so I decided to read " The Turmoil"_ the first in the series and absolutely loved it. The concept of new and old money has been around since biblical times, so the troubles of the families, winners and losers is nothing new, but Tarkington shows the growth of American cities and the causes and effects. He brings up different systems of governing and it seems like he is not for the capitalist kind but that would be drawing a conclusion, which I think is off. Not knowing his political ideas, and from reading this, it seems that in general it is for the good. Bibbs not liking it in the least, yet he sees the importance and necessity in the end. The labor of worker and management looking to gain an advantage. The environmental atmosphere and the greatness of the city and all that live there is dismissed by many, only the outsider notices the differences. The question of dreaming and when the reality taking charge, hoping to set aside but not to let go dream and be creative but putting not losing that entirely. Should a parent push a child into something? That is not always so easy to discern because sometimes direction is necessary.

Story in short- Bibbs Sheridan is the youngest son of The Sheridans who have made the city into prosperity but he had just come back from the hospital, he looks like a ghost and his family dismisses him as useless, though his money is caring.

The synopsis from a Delphi collection of his works

➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
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First published by Harpers and Brothers in 1915, The Turmoil was a great success and was the bestselling novel of that year. It forms the first part of Tarkington’s Growth trilogy, which also includes the novels The Magnificent Ambersons (1918) and The Midlander (1923). The author once again chooses to set his work in the American Midwest — his favourite location for
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his storytelling. Tarkington was a Midwestern regionalist, who borrowed from the nineteenth century regionalist movement that began to strongly take root during the Civil War and flourished in the latter stages of the century. The movement was decidedly conservative in most regards as it often longed for an unchanging landscape of values and traditions and a static understanding of what it meant to be American. There was a sense of fear of emerging technologies and industrialisation and often a strong
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reactionary and racist resistance to social change. The Turmoil is set in a small, but unnamed Midwestern town and focuses on the fortunes of two families, the Sheridans and the Vertrees, at a time of social and economic upheaval in the country. The Sheridans form part of the new ‘self-made’ industrial capitalist order, while the Vertrees represent ‘old money’, who have derived their former wealth from land. While the Sheridans prosper in the economic climate, the Vertrees find
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themselves newly poor and desperately trying to adjust to an order in which their power and position is in seemingly terminal decline. The book was adapted for a 1916 silent film starring Valli Valli as well as the Hobart Henley directed silent picture from 1924, starring George Hackathorne and Eileen Percy.


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Not so long ago as a generation, there was no panting giant here, no heaving, grimy city; there was but a pleasant big town of neighborly people who had understanding of one another, being, on the whole, much of the same type.
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The good burghers were given to jogging
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comfortably about in phaetons or in surreys for a family drive on Sunday. No one was very rich; few were very poor; the air was clean, and there was time to live.
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With Bigness came the new machinery and the rush; the streets began to roar and rattle, the houses to tremble; the pavements were worn under the tread of hurrying multitudes. The old, leisurely, quizzical look of the faces was lost in something harder and warier;
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The politicians let the people make all the laws they liked; it did not matter much, and the taxes went up, which is good for politicians. Law-making was a pastime of the people; nothing pleased them more. Singular fermentation of their humor, they even had laws forbidding dangerous speed. More marvelous still, they had a law forbidding smoke! They forbade chimneys to smoke and they forbade cigarettes to smoke. They made laws for all things and forgot them immediately; though sometimes they
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would remember after a while, and hurry to make new laws that the old laws should be enforced — and then forget both new and old. Wherever enforcement threatened Money or Votes — or wherever it was too much to bother — it became a joke. Influence was the law.

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He was the city incarnate. He loved it, calling it God’s country, as he called the smoke Prosperity,
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breathing the dingy cloud with relish. And when soot fell upon his cuff he chuckled; he could have kissed it. “It’s good! It’s good!” he said, and smacked his lips in gusto. “Good, clean soot; it’s our life-blood, God bless it!” The smoke was one of his great enthusiasms; he laughed at a committee of plaintive housewives who called to beg his aid against it. “Smoke’s what brings your husbands’ money home on Saturday night,” he told them, jovially. “Smoke may hurt your little shrubberies in the front yard some,
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but it’s the catarrhal climate and the adenoids that starts your chuldern coughing. Smoke makes the climate better. Smoke means good health: it makes the people wash more. They have to wash so much they wash off the microbes. You go home and ask your husbands what smoke puts in their pockets out o’ the pay-roll — and you’ll come around next time to get me to turn out more smoke instead o’ chokin’ it off!”
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Bibbs Sheridan was a musing sort of boy, poor in health, and considered the failure — the “odd one” — of the family. Born during that most dangerous and anxious of the early years, when the mother fretted and the father took his chance, he was an ill-nourished baby, and grew meagerly, only lengthwise, through a feeble childhood.
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At twenty-two, Bibbs was physically no more than the outer scaffolding of a man, waiting for the building to begin inside — a long-shanked, long-faced, rickety youth, sallow and hollow and haggard, dark-haired and dark- eyed,

❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert

I was so happy that Bibbs and Mary ended together. I liked Bibbs but the beginning of the book, it seemed that Bibbs would not be the winner at the end. I was surprised that Bibbs did so well but after hearing about Mary's family troubles, he wanted to do well to help, he bought Mr. Vertrees' stock company so that Mary's parents could provide. He did not ask her to marry him for pity, but because he cared and loved her, they both were blinded, if not for Doctor Gurney and Sheridan it would have taken a lot longer to end up together in the end. Jim's death was tragic, Sheridan did not see Bibbs being helpful until it was thrusted on him. Sibyl will never be truly happy, she had the wrong way and especially cheating on her husband with Robert Lamhorn. Edith probably will not be too happy in the end if her husband starts acting badly but whatever happens Bibbs and Mary will take care of her if she wants to come back. In the end Sheridan bounced back but it seems his son is a special breed. Mary notices Bibbs and Sheridan really resemble each other except Bibbs is thinner.

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bottom Line First The first of a thematically connected trilogy. In Turmoil, Booth Tarkington introduces us to a Midwest American City about midway into the process of becoming a major industrial center. At the heart of this city are the old line families seeking to maintain social standing even as these the social structure moves into the hands of the driven nouveau rich. Not properly attached to either side are the artists, traditionally connected to the one and having an uncertain role among those too busy to appreciate the arts. Recommendation A definite yes for your reading list. Booth Tarkington tells a good story. At times heavy handed and tending towards the soap opera. The author does not give you the obvious climax and the wrap up while further from the expected is artfully thought provoking.

Turmoil begins by introducing us to the City. The smoke and grit from the major manufacturing activity of the town will almost become almost a character. Arriving back in the city is Bibbs Sheridan a younger son who has been recovering from a metal breakdown and is generally believed to be somewhat dim. The remainder of the book will seem like a fight for the soul of this gentle person.

He is highly self-depreciating and in every way unfit for the role of capitalist social climber. His is a humane artistic temperament. What is wanted most of him is that he prove himself capable not just of hard work but that the hard entrepreneurial spirit most prized by his family and especially his father.

Upon arriving home he finds his family driven to achieve a social standing comparable to their economic standing. Among the older families they are disdained as lacking in class and education. This judgement is demonstrably true. In contrast the Sheridan’s have moved next to the Vertrees, a family at the top of the old social structure but also on the edge of poverty. For years the family wealth has been mismanaged as the new wave of industrialization have confounded their efforts to keep up. The hopes of the Vertrees family is their daughter who makes the conscious decision to sell herself as the final family asset, trading her name for the Sheridan’s name and money.

Besides the major plot-line the various members of the Sheridan family have a number of problems. The nature of these problems tend to resemble what will later be called soap operas. They come close to be satires of the newly arrived and the over-driven business opportunists. The father, Jim is tone deaf to anything not in furtherance of his company. He is continual refrain is his concern that all he has done has been for his sons. He needs more than anything the certainty that what he has built will be assumed by his sons.

Turmoil could devolve into any number of cliché’s. The image of the dirty city ought to become a metaphor for dirty lives and the erosion of learned appreciation for the arts. Trakington sets up a number of obvious resolutions, then refuses them all.

[Michael Canoeist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is Booth Tarkington so neglected?? What a fine writer. The Turmoil is the second of the "Growth" trilogy, the first of which is Pulitzer winner The Magnificent Ambersons. Good story, intensely American, and a more sympathetic protagonist than Ambersons' Georgie. A bit dated in a few parts, but vastly better than most of today's prizewinners. The list of Tarkington novels and stories that were used in Hollywood numbers in the 70s -- they recognized a storyteller, and I think we would profit by recovering this one.

Worth noting is the author's 4-page introduction to the trilogy, in which he bemoans the devotion to Growth, which he calls "The God." Whether right or wrong in his condemnation of the pursuit of wealth and "bigness" that turned Indianapolis from "a pleasant big town of neighborly people" into a smoky, dirty, noisy new machine for producing more wealth, with a much bigger and more diverse population, Tarkington saw the phenomenon there and across the nation and his writing captures one of those hinges of American history that we marvel at today. His distress at the trend may add an urgency to what he was writing; it certainly does not detract from the two of these three novels that I have read. He was too good to be a mere propagandist; moreover, he was an eyewitness, so there is perspective and the opportunity for reflection to be gained by the reader from what he reports.

Lastly, Tarkington enjoyed exercising his authorial prerogatives and one result is that his prose is fun to read!

[Mike Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really have become a sucker for old-fashioned romances. I loved this book. Tarkington isn't subtle; his characters are either good or bad, not in-between (although one character does change, finally), and the reader is never in doubt about what the author thinks about "bigness" and "progress." The city is a character in this novel, just as similar cities are characters in Dickens' novels. The central story, though, is a plain old tear-jerking romance that leaves the reader caring deeply about how the story will end, and uncertain about the ending until the last page.
It wouldn't be right to omit saying that the author's command of the language is wonderful. This would be a good read if for no other reason.

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book back in my high school years and don't remember much of the plot except that the main character, Bibbs Sheridan, is the youngest son of James Sheridan who is a successful businessman of the early 20th century who has become very wealthy. Bibbs however, is not interested in business - he prefers the life of the mind, poetry and such. The story of the Sheridans is intertwined with the Vertrees family, which unlike the nouveau riche Sheridans, is an old money family. But Bibbs and Mary Vertrees become romantically involved. Overall, Tarkington in this novel paints a portrait of a section of upper class life as it was in its time period in the American Middle West.

[Steve Sarrica · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fun, if utterly predictable, look at a new money family at the beginning of the Industrial Age in the US. Most of the characterizations are cartoonish at best, with the scion of the Sheridan family being the sterling example. Enjoyable as a period piece. I'm wondering if "The Magnificent Ambersons" will come off better.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word: Delightful. This would have made the perfect Cary Grant comedy film. The dialog is hilarious, the characters flawed and lovable, and, although the ending is completely predictable, the read is more than worth the ride. Really looking forward to reading the award winning sequel.

[Daniel Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ah Bibbs Sheridan, from invalid to budding romantic to business magnate. The runt of the Sheridan clan can do it all. I quite enjoy Booth Tarkington's writing as his style of conservativism appeals to me. His dislikes industrialization and so do I. He dislikes the automobile and so do I. He dislikes capitalistic toil for the sake of bigness and so do I. We'd get along great.

"The Turmoil is a solid entry in The Growth Trilogy. We meet the new money Sheridans and their neighbors the old money (but rapidly melting) Vertrees. Now as a fan of old money dynasties I was naturally inclined to root for the Vertrees. Luckily for me, Mary is easy to root for. She's on a quest to find a husband to save her family, and coincidentally the Sheridans have three lads to shoot her shot with.

Her first attempt is a comedic failure for Roscoe is already married to Sybil. She probably should have done more research.

Her second attempt goes well with Jim Sheridan - the business bull of the family. However, she doesn't want to be with him after some bland one sided courtship and Jim gets himself killed off screen. It's alluded to that Jim got in the car wreck due to the strain of overwork plus his failed courtship with Mary. Granted, there is a long list of people who are reported to die horribly off screen. It's a violent age.

Her third attempt with the sickly runt of the litter proves to be a great match. Bibbs and Mary are two peas in a pod. Except that once again Mary can't bring herself to marry. She's an interesting one that Mary Vertrees!

There are side stories involving a maimed hand that doesn't heal well, a daughter who runs off to Florida with a lover, an alcoholic son, a temu Cersei Lannister impersonation by Roscoe's wife Sybil, and finally a sleepy but insightful doctor. All good fun.

The characters are a bit basic. Mary and Bibbs have depth but everyone else is kind of one note. That's fine enough, but there were some missed opportunities in the narrative to raise the stakes or add tension. In any case, I enjoyed this book and all the critiques on the cult of "bigness"

*** stars!

[Jason Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

For most of my life, I’ve had the same reaction every time I spot an animal carcass on the side of the road, or when I hear about someone being killed in a car accident:
I think... How did we ever end up like this? Like... The first time someone drove a motor vehicle so fast they were killed when they struck a tree, why didn’t we all go “well, I guess we can’t design them to go THAT fast?” The first time a small child or an animal wandered out into the road to be struck and killed, why didn’t everyone say “oh, I guess we can’t have roads for motor vehicles without protective barricades?” As silly as my notions may seem... And they do come from deep down in the heart-bleedingest section of my being...These are clearly the kind of notions had by author Booth Tarkington, as he watched these developments first-hand.
That’s just one of the many reasons The Turmoil resonated powerfully with me.
To be honest, I almost stopped reading when I realized the the book’s narrative and themes were so averse to capitalism and patriotism. I, myself, am a conservative. And I’m glad I kept going.
For me, The Turmoil plays like an incredibly engaging soap opera, with crystal clear characters. The reader alternates between romantic highs, voyeuristic gawking, and an appalled anger, all under the umbrella of a sense of impending doom.
Yes, I’m a mostly right wing guy. However, growing up the weird, self-loathing black sheep of a family, I very much related to the story’s central figure, Bibbs. (Sometimes, more than I would have liked.) Bibbs is, more or less, a socialist. While I generally view that as an incredibly naive way of thinking, it somehow becomes far more palatable in the context of this tale, through the eyes of this protagonist.
For the record...
I understand the next book in this trilogy arguably takes the opposing political view.
Bottom line, I won’t forget this novel or its inhabitants.

[Bernard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally reviewed January 30, 2016.

An entertaining tale (first in a trilogy) set in the early part of the 20th century in America's Midwest.

The book is like a combination of an Upton Sinclair and a Sinclair Lewis story, Upton like in its criticism of industrialism and capitalism, and Lewis like in its portrait of the characters and their lives in early 20th Century U.S.A .

The theme is "Growth" - the name given to this trilogy - and the "Bigger is Better" attitude that industrialists had in their support of their city getting bigger, dirtier, and noisier than ever before in the name of "progress".
The main character of the book is a young son of an industrial tycoon, who doesn't share his father's love for the family business and wants to follow his own path in life. He sees industry ruining the landscape and environment, and wants to write instead.
It could sound familiar, but there is a lot more to the book and the other characters are memorable too, including Mary, a lady from a family next door - a family that has seen better days.

A kindle edition was issued of this novel in 2010, but I would avoid it as it is a censored, edited version put out by the PC police.
Tarkington's books are not politically correct by today's standards when it come to portrayal of African-Americans, which is not surprising since a lot his books were written 100 years ago.
I'm glad I read an early print of the book published in 1915 - written as the author wrote it - I don't like censorship or PC types who like to revise history or alter works of the past.

The other books in the trilogy are:

The Magnificent Ambersons

The Midlander ( National Avenue)

Whilst a trilogy, the books can be read as stand alone tales, in any order.

[Johnny Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Turmoil," the first book in Booth Tarkington's Growth Trilogy, offers a captivating exploration of industrialization and romance against the backdrop of a small midwestern city undergoing rapid change. Set in a nameless city resembling Indianapolis, the novel delves into the intertwined stories of two families, the Sheridans and the Vertrees, as they navigate the challenges brought about by material progress.

Tarkington skillfully weaves together themes of redemption, neglected relationships, and the awakening of characters to the world around them. The protagonist, Bibbs, evolves from a lifeless and ineffective individual into someone who actively seeks to improve the world within the system rather than remaining a passive observer. While the book delves into socialist leanings and presents strong anti-capitalist imagery, it repeatedly highlights ecological concerns of industrialization.

"The Turmoil" also incorporates elements of mild romance, as well as a powerful and abusive father figure who exerts a threatening influence without resorting to physical violence. Unfortunately, the book contains casual racism, with racial slurs used in a pejorative manner, implying the dehumanization of certain individuals. While the language used may have aged poorly, the plot remains poignant and relevant, offering an excellent example of classic literature.

Overall, "The Turmoil" is a thought-provoking piece that explores the complexities of societal change and individual relationships. Despite the American ideal of freedom allowing young adults today more autonomy in shaping their own lives, Tarkington's portrayal of the struggles faced by the characters remains impactful, making this novel a worthwhile read for fans of classic literature.

[Bob Koester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts with a big swing at urbanization and ends up being about the life of just a few people over the course of a few months, which is itself an interesting twist rather than a letdown. In a way it's most interesting in what it doesn't turn into: everyone communicates too well for it to become a melodrama, and it stays too rooted to become an epic. It's just a well-told story, with a particularly colorful background.

In retrospect it's weirdly reminiscent of The Godfather, if the film never left the Corleone compound and people who went away were only heard about rather than seen. I'd call this difference a matter of taste but at the same time there's a reason GF is more popular.

This is the first of Booth Tarkington's many works (I feel like I saw something that said 92 novels?), and read it mostly because I love Orson Welles' Magnificent Ambersons and this is supposedly in a series with that. Very glad I did, especially as it lacks Amberson's melodramatics, and I'm now a little sad that when BT is written about at all it's as an example of how someone can be popular and lauded, win two Pullitzer Prizes, and then be largely forgotten.

I do wish there was a 3.5 star option though because there are a couple misfires, particularlly some repetitive blocks of dialog (from people who have that as a character trait, admittedly) and some questionable dialect. Otoh, although the black characters are very much servants they don't do anything that a future Percival Everett would have difficulty explaining from their point of view. When one of the white characters acts dismissively towards them it's very much to reflect badly on the whie character rather than them.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a lot of character depth. Until the last few chapters Mary was the only character who was written beyond 2-D. This story of an Indianapolis business man who really likes banging his hand, wounded or not, on desks and such took a while to get going. A quarter of the way in one son had returned home and there was a dinner party. Not much for 80-some pages.

So, successful patriarch is frustrated with who may take over the family business someday, with four children all beset by a big problem or two - lack of focus, poor choice in mate, untimely death, the drink - and finds that the dreamer of the lot, a sensitive type who likes poetry may be the last one standing. He strikes up a friendship with a neighbor girl who comes from a family in decline, and who may be after his brother. There's some feeding zinc to a machine, an injury, and the father and the dreamer's characters become a bit more compatible as each adapts.

Can't really recommend this one. Neat to read what was apparently a best seller in 1915, but, yeah, just lacked depth for me. I recommend the Magnificent Ambersons, however. Tarkington really had some insight with that one.

[Katrin V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a 3.5, but better than many 4s Goodreads rates.

First published in 1915 amidst the excitement of new technologies, skyscrapers and industrial expansion (and far away war in Europe) Tarkington does a good job showing the gains and losses in 'progress' that could well be translated into our current days with internet, social media and AI. The characters are quite real, the relational threads are a bit of a soap opera, and the last pages a real let down. It is fascinating that the author must feel sympathy even for the types of characters that he portrays making poor decisions for very selfish reasons.

The introduction quotes Tarkington, "There is a spirit that hinders general personal decency, knows and cares nothing for beauty, and is glad to have its body dirty for the sake of what it calls 'prosperity.'" Today, Rod Dreher (Living in Wonder) would agree. Our progress/search for prosperity can hinder our own sense of purpose and connection to the numinous.

[Scott O. Kaszyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growth and Bigness, to what end? is what this novel asks but never really answers. The main character, Bibbs, goes through a transformation from sensitive artist to commanding capitalist that is instigated by several shocks. Tarkington does an exceptional job of painting each character through their voices. The senior Sheridan is loud and bossy and loves the smoke his factories give off because they mean paychecks to his employees, even though soot covers the town and people in nastiness in the name of progress, growth. I identified closely with Bibb's initial questioning of why we need to grow businesses year after year and make more and more products and money. Isn't it enough to be in a place where one's needs are met and happiness can flourish? Does attaining more things bring more happiness? Usually not.

[Shimona]

Read if you like social criticism, father-son growth, and nice guys finishing first.

Reviewku:

Family drama
Sheridans and Vertrees
Bittersweet ending

Quotes:

“And wouldn’t it be pleasant, really, if they could all cross the winning-line together? Who really enjoys beating anybody—if he sees the beaten man’s face? The only way we can enjoy getting ahead of other people nowadays is by forgetting what the other people feel.”

“When I was a little boy this wasn’t an ugly town; now it’s hideous. What’s the use of being big just to be hideous?….aren’t business and politics just the housekeeping part of life? And wouldn’t you despise a woman that not only made her housekeeping her ambition, but did it so noisy and dirtily that the whole neighborhood was in a continual turmoil over it?”

[Sandra Lazzell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know how I was never previously exposed to Tarkington - this book was the best seller in the U.S. the year it was published, and, Booth is a fellow Midwesterner. "He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once...and is often cited as an example of an author who enjoyed great success when alive, but whose reputation and influence did not survive his death." I can't understand why!!! The these in this novel are still so applicable today and feel so fresh, plus, it's very well written. The Turmoil explores societal status and wealth, growth for growth's sake vs other driving factors, and a variety of relationships. And, he wrote characters that feel very real to me. I'll be reading everything he wrote.