reviews
Feb 16, 2011
Powell's first novel differs in tone from his Dance cycle. The social milieu is much the same; intellectuals and artists float about between depressing parties and country houses. And the plot is again cyclical; while that character was created through metaphor and imagery in Dance, here it is simply the fact that the first and last scenes occur in a private club and conclude with an invitation to a party. The mood is much bleaker, however. The protagonist seems to have no purpose or real en
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Sep 28, 2009
I found this book at a used book store in Minneapolis. Anthony Powell is one of my favorite writers, so I bought it. I think it was one of his earlier books, published in 1931. Just finished it. I liked it, of course. The dry wit, the recording of conversations -- you want to read more and more (and if you do, there's always his massive "Dance to the Music of Time." The protagonist's love affair reminded me of one I had in college, where you couldn't seem to find a way to where you wan
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Jun 28, 2011
A very funny book in which absolutely nothing happens. I read some criticism of it while reading up on literature of the 1930s and thought it sounded unbelievably bleak, but somehow I was amused rather than depressed. The characters want very little, do even less, and even the climactic bits are entirely anti-climactic -- very telling in a novel from 1931.
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