book data
95 ratings, 3.33 average rating, 22 reviews
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published
May 4th 2005
by Mariner Books
binding
Paperback, 256 pages
isbn
061856828X
(isbn13: 9780618568284)
description
Set in Eisenhower-era Chicago, An Unfinished Season brilliantly evokes a city, an epoch, and a shift in ideals through the closely observed story of n...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 143)
Read in May, 2008
I was slow getting into this, in part because of style. A paragraph can last a couple pages (in one case, a chapter’s length); at times I found myself drifting into Editorial Mind, imagining where I would break it. Also, the author doesn’t set off dialogue with quotation marks, so it can be an effort to differentiate it from other text. But my larger problem was that the first half of the book felt like it was populated with male “types”--the taciturn father, the salty guys in the newsro...more
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4 comments
Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
debutantes, newsies
A story of a young man coming of age, caught in between worlds, incapable of using quotation marks.
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Read in November, 2008
recommended to Mark by:
Stumbled upon itrecommends it for: All readers
It has been many years since I have read a novel of this greatness. Ward Just could be compared to some of the greatest...F.Scott Fitzgerald, D. H. Lawrence, Graham Green, just to name a few. Just is extraordinary at capturing a vocabulary that takes you into his story where you feel intimately involved with his characters. The Unfinished Season gives you a masterful look at what deb parties and the high society looks like in the early 1900's Chicago. The main character Wils is 19 years old,...more
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Read in July, 2008
Beautiful. Don't just take my word for it:
Our protagonist at the Art Institute:
"I imagined each canvas as a miniature civilization, living cities resting on dead ones, and somewhere in the brushstrokes were graveyards and sunshine as far as the eye could see. I was drawn to this Impressionist world, its appetite and sensuality, moments profoundly incomplete, beyond reach, filled with grief."
And re: the string of debutante balls along Chicago's tony Nort...more
Our protagonist at the Art Institute:
"I imagined each canvas as a miniature civilization, living cities resting on dead ones, and somewhere in the brushstrokes were graveyards and sunshine as far as the eye could see. I was drawn to this Impressionist world, its appetite and sensuality, moments profoundly incomplete, beyond reach, filled with grief."
And re: the string of debutante balls along Chicago's tony Nort...more
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Read in April, 2006
Ward Just’s account of the coming of age of Wils Ravan, a young well-to-do man in Chicago in the 1950s wouldn’t sound like something that would particularly interest me. It took a long time for me to get going with this book, owing mainly to my drowsing off after 3 pages when I would pick it up just before bed.
But a conveniently timed trip to Atlanta gave me the good solid chunk of hours needed to get going, and once I got passed the narrator’s initial account of his family life ...more
But a conveniently timed trip to Atlanta gave me the good solid chunk of hours needed to get going, and once I got passed the narrator’s initial account of his family life ...more
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Read in July, 2007
A dark and disturbing commentary on family life in the 50’s, this fictionalized account of a prosperous North Shore family in Illinois is compelling and thought-provoking. With the 19-year-old Wils going off to the University of Chicago in the fall, his family as it once was known is unraveling around him. His father is business is in turmoil as unions, McCarthyism and a unsettled economy threaten his livelihood. His mother is physically present, but her mind is often elsewhere. When tragedy...more
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Read in July, 2007
This was an excellent coming of age novel set in Eisenhower-Era Chicago. 19 yo Wils is dealing in three different areans in his summer before attending college at the University of Chicago, my alma mater. He works at a newspaper, he attends North Shore debutante parties, and the holelife that finds his parents battling.
This was my first Ward Just novel. This will not be my last. While the story drew me in quickly and allowed me to dance through the various scenes, there were time...more
This was my first Ward Just novel. This will not be my last. While the story drew me in quickly and allowed me to dance through the various scenes, there were time...more
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Read in May, 2008
Why did I like this book? I don't really know..not my type of story really. The story of a young rather wealthy boy's passage into adulthood. The pace was slow, and, yet, I enjoyed it. You observe 'Wils'observing his parents,life ,and his girlfriend all through the eyes of this unaware boy. He maintains a strange distance despite or because of the family wealth and privilege. And, yet he is sympathetic. The character development is good, and perhaps no matter our financial status, we are (or ...more
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Read in June, 2008
While this book held my interest I was not hanging on the edge of my seat to read what would happen next. I thought it was a rather predictable tale recounting a young man's (Wils Ravan) summer between high school and college during the mid-1950's when he is an errand boy at a scandal-type newspaper during the day and an upper class socialite at night. The story takes place in Chicago, so that part was of interest to me but the story itself was kind of boring.
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Read in December, 2008
If I could give this book two and an half stars I would, but giving it three stars is just too many. It was the epitome of 'okay.' Very atmospheric, but that was about all. The momentum it developed early on in the novel fizzled about a quarter of the way through.
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Read in May, 2008
Strong sense of time period and social class evoked in this piece, a coming of age story of an upper class youth from the Chicago suburbs trying to make sense of a world that includes debutante parties, a hip jazz club, and a summer job as an errand boy for a sensational newspaper. The language is rich, the tone something of a cross between Catcher in the Rye and a sumptuous Douglas Sirk film.
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For all the beauty of this novel, I just could not get into it as much as I hoped. The characters were richly drawn and there were some fantastic details. Like the guy whose artwork consisted of watercolors of empty rooms. How awesome is that symbolism? Anyway, some parts meandered, some sucked me in. It was just not as fabulous as I expected. Still enjoyable though.
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An Unfinished Season, Ward Just
Ward Just is a joy to read. There is nothing too weighty here, no crisis, no great tragedy or trauma, just a simple story that is charming and sincere, sad and wistful at times, cut through with pedal points of nostalgia throughout. An Unfinished Season is true comfort reading.
Ward Just is a joy to read. There is nothing too weighty here, no crisis, no great tragedy or trauma, just a simple story that is charming and sincere, sad and wistful at times, cut through with pedal points of nostalgia throughout. An Unfinished Season is true comfort reading.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Terrie by:
Mom
An unfinished reading. I gave it the ol' college try, got about 1/2 way through, and just didn't care. This was a birthday present from several years ago. At least C. liked it.
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Read in January, 2008
Parts of this book seemed good, but parts seemed to drag on and on. Some of it tended to be over descriptive, in my opinion. But overall it was a pretty good story.
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Read in August, 2007
I wouldn't have read this if not for book club, but I did end up enjoying it. Really lovely descriptions of 1950's era Chicago and the North Shore.
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Read in May, 2008
recommended to Carol by:
book club
I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could. A nice look at a summer in 1950's Chicago, but you can stop waiting for something to actually happen.
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Read in February, 2007
Again, another Award Winning book that I can't enjoy! Why oh why do they give out awards to the most banal crap?
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Read in July, 2007
recommends it for:
someone into this period
Had a gard time getting through this...I know other people love it... but it was tough for me.
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