This book... no good. Once again I was lured by a Pulitzer Prize sticker that in the end left me wondering who exactly votes for these novels.

The description of New York City at the boom of its birth (late 1800s) was interesting but that's about it.

First, the story bothered me. Martin spends too much time trying to out-do his last feat. He also ends up marrying the wrong girl, which is very frustrating.

Second, his constant description of Caroline's hair pulled back tight against her head was b More...

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

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Intro

After writing about nonfiction for the last three weeks, this comes to me as a new break. Perhaps I tired myself reading those essays back in college. I also distinctly remember forming a mission inside my head to read all the Pulitzer books that I was able to hoard, and I began that, or rather resumed it, with Martin Dressler.

I resumed my Pulitzer reading with this because of its number of pages. It is not very long. It can actually be read over the weeken More...

I very much enjoyed this story of a poor boy who becomes a hotel entrepreneur in turn of the century New York, who dreams of a marvelous place where vistors can enter the building and experience otherworldly wonders. Like most fictional dreamers, he's ahead of his time, and his dream can't survive in his world.

Martin's fantasy of a place you can visit that takes you with a few easy steps from the world as you know it to any number of places around the world, under the sea, or in the heavens, was More...

A cautionary tale for ambitious people, because who likes ambitious people? Not me. I can best describe it as kind of like Atlas Shrugged, but you know, the complete opposite, so good. Also, it's short. So if you hated Atlas Shrugged—and there are plenty of reasons to hate Atlas Shrugged—you'll probably love Martin Dressler.

True story: I went out to eat at a restaurant in Brooklyn, The Dressler. I asked our waiter if the restaurant was named after this book. It turns out it was, indeed, named a More...

The reason why this was on my shelf is that it was an assigned textin one of my English courses at uni. I don't remember which one, which is a shame, because that might have given me an idea of how to read it. I mean, having read it now (obviously I never did for the class!), I really want to know why it was included. I'd also like to know what was passed over the year this won the Pulitzer - was it like a typical Oscars night, the choices a bit thin so Shakespeare in Love wins? (Am I the only More...

It's about work, and fairly unglamorous work at that, hotel construction and management. How dull is that? I'd say a reading of over 90 on the dullometer. But then the hotels which the hero builds get ever more elaborate and weirder and the book shimmies into magical realism which is a thing where you write about something blatantly impossible as if it's just boring and everyday and complete zoos on the 54th floor and an Arabian desert on the 70th floor is something an ambitious hotel entreprene More...

A Pulitzer Prize Winner - 1997. It was a provacative look at the American Dream and how it may not be all that it is held up to be. Martin Dressler certainly achieved great heights, rising from humble beginnings combined with hard work - but realized by the end of the novel he had really only achieved a dream. Even though it was written 15 years ago, it is very apt for the precarious situation we find America in right now. Much of our hard work and achievement obtained great recognition for us a More...

Millhauser, Steven. MARTIN DRESSLER: The Tale of an American Dreamer. (1996). ***. After having read a couple of books by this author, I was eagerly looking forward to reading this one – his Pulitzer Prize winner. I was disappointed. Although well-written, the plot was humdrum and uninspired. Martin Dressler, the hero, grew up helping his father in his cigar store in NYC. He gets a chance to move out of the store into a hotel, where he starts out as a bellboy, but rapidly moves up in rank until More...

An all-time favorite I pick up often. For me it's like staring at an oil painting; it transports me the way books used to when I was a child. It's a rich read visually, but if you're not a fan of metaphor and the interior life it probably just feels bleak and Martin, not that bright. I understand why it didn't resonate with some readers, that's just life.

Martin starts out ambitious in an ordinary way but eventually he falls into a dream state. We watch as the dream takes him over and this can b More...

Il libro racconta la storia dell'ascesa del giovane Martin Dressler che, da aiutante del padre nel negozio di sigari di famiglia e passando attraverso una rapida carriera di successo in un hotel, intraprende il progetto in bilico tra sogno e realtà di costruire l'albergo perfetto. Lo accompagnano in questo viaggio tre donne incontrate quasi per caso, una madre e le due figlie, che si ritaglieranno, ognuna a suo modo, un ruolo accanto a quest'uomo intraprendente e sognatore. Sullo sfondo, una New More...

This is a curious story, set in the late 1800's and early 1900's, and capturing the rise of young entrepreneur, Martin Dressler. Seemingly marked for prominence in the dizzying property development surge in New York City at that time, we see him progress further and further, ultimately imparting the City with gaudy and fantastical displays of high kitsch and amusement, in the guise of hotels that are fitted with the kind of displays seen in present day "Ripley's Believe it or Not" Museums. Dress More...

This book was a chore to get through. Had to read it for Book Club, and although the first 50 pages or so were interesting (the author is very good at describing NYC in the late 1800s/early 1900s) - the plot defined the characters - Martin wasn't real to me - he was a fantasy character with nothing to empathize with. Of the 6 at book club, only 1 person liked it, and she listened to the book while walking her dog, so the pages of description didn't bog her down.
The whole agonizing process of whi More...

I've never read such a book. Short chapters add up to a dazzling ascent from cigar store helper to hotel magnate, and a final long chapter that unspools like an enticing nightmare.

No one reading this book will feel warmth for the characters, which made me uncomfortable, but I read on, enticed by the intense descriptions of Dressler's emotional discoveries and the hypnotic listing of objects of the late nineteenth century. Dressler is ambitious, and it almost seems like we do not get to know him More...

What to love: the book's message is fable-like and can be read by anyone of any age. Dressler dreams and continues dreaming, refusing to ever let his reality-influenced advisers bring him down. Its moral is to always follow your ambition, as even if you reach an undesirable end, wouldn't you be happy you took off running in the first place? Furthermore, Millhauser's descriptions of Martin's hotels are as vast as anything I've ever read, while still leaving enough for your imagination to run wild More...

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Martin Dressler portrays the American consciousness in early 20th century New York City through the life of its protagonist. Raised in humble circumstances as an apprentice in his father’s cigar shop, Martin realizes he has ambitions and dreams of his own, setting him off on an inexorable quest to become uniquely himself through business and architectural feats of wonder. His extraordinary vision drives him always to pursue the next great thing, leaving in his wake More...

This 1996 novel captures the world and texture of the 1890s New York City, and the literary style of that time. It is a “page-turner” -- a panoramic story of the title character from his teenage years as an apprentice shopkeeper, a shopkeeper’s son, who rises with his free-wheeling ambition and business acumen, to become the proprietor of a tobacco stand in a New York hotel lobby. Martin's abilities and affability are soon recognized by the hotel director and he is given the job of hotel Night-M More...

I'm glad that Ididn't know much about this book before Iread it. If Ihad known how much mythology and how many famous parables were included, I likely wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much. I have this thought that Idon't like fantasy or magical realism, but I'm finding that there are more exceptions to this rule than I'd thought. This book was certainly an example of one of those exceptions.

The book takes place in the '30s and begins with young Martin Dressler working in his father's cigar st More...

This book breaks a bad book spree of about three months for me. Finally, a book I could really get into for both it's beautiful writing and interesting story. On the surface, it does not sound like a very readable book. A novel about someone building a hotel empire should not be a page turner. However, Millhauser accomplishes this by creating a richly described world peopled with relatable and sympathetic characters. The story of the Martin Dressler's success is paralleled with the story of his More...

Martin Dressler, the main character, he is 14 years old at the beginning of the saga. He works at the Vanderlyn Hotel as a bell boy and also works hard at his father's store. He continues to work his way up by fulfilling his dream of owning many impressive and successful hotels. His first business venture is with his business partner Mr. Dundee. They open a lunch room. In his climb to success he marries the eldest daughter, Caroline of Mrs. Margaret Vernon. Caroline is a very quiet and fragile y More...

This excellent Pulitzer Prize winning novel takes place in New York City at the end of the 19th century. Martin Dressler, the main protagonist, is 14 years old at the beginning of the saga. He works at the Vanderlyn Hotel as a bell boy and also works hard at his father's store. He continues to work his way up by fulfilling his dream of owning many impressive and successful hotels. His first business venture is with his business partner Mr. Dundee. They open a lunch room. In his climb to success More...

Opening half is an engaging story of where brains and hard work can get a guy in Old New York. The rest read, to me, like science fiction, and I found it difficult therefore to remain engaged. Creative, though, for sure, and well-told. And an interesting study of how whom we ought to love and whom we chose to love -- not always the same person -- influence the course of human events. Or something.

"Martin knew that what attracted him wasn't the actual lunchroom, for he had no passion for lunchro More...

Gosh, what an odd book. It's really like a long exercise in creating a metaphor for the overexuberant capitalism of the turn of last century, and its ultimate vacuity.

*some vague spoilers*

The first half of the book I really enjoyed, but once the Vernon sisters entered I felt things went downhill. (Does this mean I have stomach only for rise, and not fall? I don't know). And I had existential panic during some of the longer passages about the thematic follies in his hotels, pages of research-des More...

I once read somewhere that people err not for want of doing what is bad, but for misdirected want of what is good. Martin Dressler starts out as a simple young man with unquestionable intelligence and ambition, and perhaps a little luck. He rises step by step and watches his vision of making a big businessman, an hotel owner, of himself grow broader and broader. And in the process he makes the choice that most of us tend to find themselves making, loving the elusive, the difficult to attain and More...

Imagine yourself at a party. Eventually you bump into a corporate big wig who catches your attention for having been extremely successful in business. You begin chatting with him. The conversation starts out interesting enough. He tells you how he used to work in a little cigar shop owned by his father. How through hard work and determination he set himself apart and landed a job at a nearby hotel working as a bell boy. He tells you as a bell boy he had great people skills, he understood exactly More...

The title character of this book is a young man who has grown up in New York City at the tail end of the 19th century, a time of huge growth, bustling expansion, and sweeping modernisation in the city. Martin, full of big dreams and ambition, becomes a successful entrepreneur. He starts with a small chain of cafes and then moves on to hotels. His hotels become increasingly grandiose and expansive, including not only lodgings but department stores, underground parks, theaters, museum exhibits, an More...

I don't know what to think of this book--it wasn't bad, or even flawed...but it wasn't great either. I loved the turn of the century period details. The amount of historic research that must have gone into this book is amazing. l also like the idea of a novel about a "dreamer" who pushes his success and efficiency to such fantastical limits (Dressler seeks to create cities within cities, combining museums, amusement parks, theaters, etc. within collossal, hotel-like structures that take up block More...

Pulitzer 1997 - Martin Dressler is the story of (spoiler alert) Martin Dressler - the son of an immigrant cigar shop owner who goes to work as a bellhop in a hotel in NY in the late 1800s and works his way to the top before leaving and purchasing lunch counters and hotels. The subtitle The Tale of An American Dreamer has a two fold meaning. One is that Martin is a classic turn of the century dreamer of being rich and successful - he is always thinking of the next great investment and the next mo More...

This story is about the quintessential concept that defines American culture: the American dream. Martin Dressler begins the book as a clerk in a cigar store in New York at the dawn of the 20th century. As he watches the city spring up around him, he's filled with ideas of his own on improving the landscape. He starts with a restaurant, which becomes a chain, then moves to hotels. Along the way, he picks up several consumer concepts that are in their infancy, like subliminal advertising campaign More...