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4th out of 9 books
—
3 voters
The Human Comedy
The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War II. The family is the Macauley's—a mother, sister, and three brothers whose struggles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants…In particular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegraph messengers in the West, finds himself caught between...more
Paperback, 192 pages
Published
August 15th 1966
by Dell
(first published 1943)
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Leyendo este libro he sentido simple y pura felicidad. Hacía mucho tiempo que no tenía este sentimiento leyendo un libro. Mientras lo leía me parecía estar dentro de una de esas viejas películas de Frank Capra. Hay que tener en cuenta que 'La comedia humana' es una novela escrita a principios de los 40, en plena Guerra Mundial, y eso se nota. Lo que me ha recordado a Capra han sido los personajes, su manera de pensar y de sentir, su bondad. Y es que esta novela me ha hecho reconciliarme con el g...more
Sognando in California.
Delizioso, fresco, scanzonato, innocente.
Un'Odissea per vivere la quale non è necessario allontanarsi da Ithaca, perché tutto il mondo è casa e a casa c'è tutto un mondo da scoprire: basta avere occhi - e cuore- per mettersi in viaggio e aprire la mente alle piccole grandi scoperte quotidiane, proprio così come fa il piccolo e curioso Ulysses, che viaggia in mondo fatto di giganti buoni, di ciclopi che proteggono un albicocco, e di una materna Penelope tra le cui braccia è...more
Delizioso, fresco, scanzonato, innocente.
Un'Odissea per vivere la quale non è necessario allontanarsi da Ithaca, perché tutto il mondo è casa e a casa c'è tutto un mondo da scoprire: basta avere occhi - e cuore- per mettersi in viaggio e aprire la mente alle piccole grandi scoperte quotidiane, proprio così come fa il piccolo e curioso Ulysses, che viaggia in mondo fatto di giganti buoni, di ciclopi che proteggono un albicocco, e di una materna Penelope tra le cui braccia è...more
6 likes · like · see review
i have just reread this beautiful little masterpiece and fell in love with saroyan and this book all over again. i am now going to pick up his short stories and marvel at those. i say, do this now. you can read it in a weekend. short, sweet, tidy, and beautiful, it is a lovely novel which touches the heart and soul without being sappy, overly sentimental or unrealistic. it takes place in the fictional 'ithaca' which, if you note by the mention of Roeding Park or Gottschalks, is actually Fresno,...more
un concentrato di gioia di vivere, tenerezza, sorrisi e pagine commoventi. i personaggi sfolgorano nella loro semplicità, nella loro bontà senza mai essere leziosi o stucchevoli.
un piccolo libro per innamorarsi, ancora e sempre, della vita.
aggiungo la dedica alla madre, che nell'edizione italiana è stata omessa (solita sciatteria)- enjoy!
"this story is for takoohi saroyan
i have taken all this time to write a story especially for you because i have wanted it to be an especially good story, the ve...more
un piccolo libro per innamorarsi, ancora e sempre, della vita.
aggiungo la dedica alla madre, che nell'edizione italiana è stata omessa (solita sciatteria)- enjoy!
"this story is for takoohi saroyan
i have taken all this time to write a story especially for you because i have wanted it to be an especially good story, the ve...more
The Human Comedy
This is one of the view books I've ever been forced to read in English Class that, though at the time I hated it, stuck in my head.
It seemed to have a very simple and cheery message, with actual trouble in it. The problem was that all evil was characterized as result of corporate goverement. Oh, and the gym teacher. He was a hard bastard. I was kinda hoping he'd get owned later on, but Homer tieing Hubert after the race was as good as it was going to get. Which is fine, because I...more
This is one of the view books I've ever been forced to read in English Class that, though at the time I hated it, stuck in my head.
It seemed to have a very simple and cheery message, with actual trouble in it. The problem was that all evil was characterized as result of corporate goverement. Oh, and the gym teacher. He was a hard bastard. I was kinda hoping he'd get owned later on, but Homer tieing Hubert after the race was as good as it was going to get. Which is fine, because I...more
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I listened to this as read by Meg Ryan. Her performance is terrific. The book takes place in Ithaca California, a home-front during World War II. Homer is a 14 year old boy who takes a job as a telegram delivery boy. Homer's older brother is a soldier and his 4 year old younger brother chases Homer around and provides comic relief. There is also a sister who is a bit shadowy but rounds out the picture. Her best friend is a neighbor who is engaged to her brother the soldier.
The book is a coming o...more
The book is a coming o...more
It's more of a series of moments in the lives of the people of Ithaca, California. It didn't really have a plot but it was quite intriguing, warming and heartbreaking at times. The story revolves around the Macauley family, Homer is fourteen and works at the telegraph office during World War 2. It is heartbreaking when he has to deliver the messages to families that their son has died at war. Marcus the older brother has gone to war. He had been the man of the family since the father had died. B...more
I found my grandmother's 1943 edition of this book on my dad's bookshelf. I enjoyed the story of a California family during World War 2: the dad has passed away, the older brother is fighting in the war, the teenage brother delivers telegraph messages such as messages telling mothers that their sons have been killed in the war, and the 4-year-old brother runs all over town unsupervised and observing lots of interesting things.
There are lots of words of wisdom in this book (or, as Madi would roll...more
There are lots of words of wisdom in this book (or, as Madi would roll...more
"The pattern of life in Ithaca - of people everywhere in the world - followed a design which at first seemed senseless and crazy, but as the days and nights gathered together as months and years, the pattern was seen to have had beauty of form. The line of ugliness had been clothed in grace by the line of charity. The force of brutality had been tempered and sweetened by the greater force of gentility. The evil color of wrong had been lost in the bright color of right, and together they had beco...more
Feb 27, 2011
Mary Ronan Drew
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
library-book
This is not a book I would have kept reading beyond Nancy Pearl's Rule of 50 but it's for the Heart of Spirituality book group at the library, so I slogged through it. The problem is the book is terribly dated, and not in a good way.
Saroyan was originally writing a movie script with the title, The Human Comedy, and based on Saroyan's youth in Fresno, but he had a disagreement with the studio and although they went on to produce a movie, he took the title and the idea and created this book, inten...more
Saroyan was originally writing a movie script with the title, The Human Comedy, and based on Saroyan's youth in Fresno, but he had a disagreement with the studio and although they went on to produce a movie, he took the title and the idea and created this book, inten...more
Si è meritato l'ingresso nel mio blog:
http://sololibribelli.wordpress.com/2...
http://sololibribelli.wordpress.com/2...
I have always loved the work of William Saroyan. I taught him in the past. His work is so spare--there is just the bare bones of the story; no padding.
Human dignity and sense of self within a community are key issues in this disarmingly simple narrative.Watch for the three-pronged revelation of human insight seen through the eyes of the child, Ulysses; the teen Homer; and the adult, Marcus. The widowed mother provides a stability upon which all these offspring rely. Essentially, she is a life so...more
Human dignity and sense of self within a community are key issues in this disarmingly simple narrative.Watch for the three-pronged revelation of human insight seen through the eyes of the child, Ulysses; the teen Homer; and the adult, Marcus. The widowed mother provides a stability upon which all these offspring rely. Essentially, she is a life so...more
What a great and touching read. A slice of Americana during the 1940s. I highly recommend this book for older children and teenagers (ages 10 -16). Families should read this book together. The story-line has no plot but is a series of vignettes in the lives of the Macauley family: a widowed mother (truly the heart and soul of the family - the children key off of her stability), older brother Marcus (serving as an American soldier in WWII), middle brother Homer (a 14 year-old who is discovering l...more
Nothing means anything to me. I don't like people. I don't like being near them. I don't trust them. I don't like the way they live or talk or the things they believe, or the way they push each other around.
I first read this 10 years when I first moved to Fresno. At the time I remember loving it and I went on to read many other books by Saroyan. My husband grew up in Fresno and remembers seeing Saroyan riding his bike around town. After re-reading this, I wonder how much of what I loved about th...more
I first read this 10 years when I first moved to Fresno. At the time I remember loving it and I went on to read many other books by Saroyan. My husband grew up in Fresno and remembers seeing Saroyan riding his bike around town. After re-reading this, I wonder how much of what I loved about th...more
A sweet and simple book that hides deep stirring themes, observations, and philosophies underneath its straightforward prose. This is a book that takes place in an isolated town in California during the Second World War. It centers on a family, the McCauleys, in particular two of the sons in that family, Homer and Ulysses, who are children. Through their eyes we see adults and our reactions to grief, suffering, love, pride, nationalism, and elitism, amongst other large life themes.
Saroyan does...more
Saroyan does...more
I read this in high school, back in the Seventies, and it had such a profound impact. I read it every three or four year
While the story develops through deceptively simple. vignettes, Saroyan writes poignantly about war, family,love, social class, and death. The characters are richly drawn, through their thoughts and interactions. Scenes and images are so touching and vividly that they remain long after you finish the book.
Just a bit of literary linking: I definitely see traces of Saroyan's sty...more
While the story develops through deceptively simple. vignettes, Saroyan writes poignantly about war, family,love, social class, and death. The characters are richly drawn, through their thoughts and interactions. Scenes and images are so touching and vividly that they remain long after you finish the book.
Just a bit of literary linking: I definitely see traces of Saroyan's sty...more
long long ago i decided i wanted to read this book. finally i have done so. i am NOT disappointed. a well-formed story of endearing characters. a window on another age. and a worthy companion volume to COMPARE where we are now, as in life in america, and what it was more likely to be like in 1943 when the book was published. imo, we've grown up in the wrong direction. our loss. respect for others are at an all time low, in my opinion. and the one thing i saw in this book was a respect for others...more
I read this to help my son with his high school reading assignment, and enjoyed it more than he did. The setting is a small fictional California town during the early years of World War II. The story centers around a telegraph office. Homer, a 14-year-old, gets a job delivering telegrams. His older brother is serving in the war; his widowed mother, younger brother, and older sister, experience the harsh realities of life as a lower class family in that rough setting. The telegrams are symbolic o...more
Feb 06, 2008
Sonky
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone
Recommended to Sonky by:
Geoff Huntington
Shelves:
contemporary-novel,
social-commentary
Jerked my tears at every chapter. Simple, beautiful writing. Emotional but not sentimental. A blend of America praise and protest.
1 like · like · see review
william saroyan is the most startlingly beautiful, simple, complex, amazing, wonderful writer than ever held a pen or pushed a key on a typewriter.
his books are astounding and you wouldn't expect them to be so but it slowly sneaks up on you that he's telling you how incredible and wonderful life can be and is and should be and all you have to do to make it yours is... live it.
i love every thing he's ever written and i haven't even read it all but i know i love it because i love him and i love t...more
his books are astounding and you wouldn't expect them to be so but it slowly sneaks up on you that he's telling you how incredible and wonderful life can be and is and should be and all you have to do to make it yours is... live it.
i love every thing he's ever written and i haven't even read it all but i know i love it because i love him and i love t...more
Set in California's San Joaquin Valley, during World War II, this is a nostalgic tale that is both gentle and brutal. This book was waiting on my bookshelf when I happened to watch the movie, which I very much enjoyed. It was fairly true to the book, with just a couple of major deviations. Ithaca, the fictional small town, I recognized as Fresno, having lived there myself some years ago. The landmarks mentioned in the book are the same but there the resemblance ends. I found the book to be thoug...more
The rhythm of the book becomes mesmerizine. It is a simple (maybe simplistic) story told in a straight forward way about a small town in California during WWII. Some of the views are certainly dated and for a book that mostly looks to the good in characters the depiction of the librarian was disappointing. The theme of home, the diversity of the US, and music to evoke a feeling for an America we all wish we lived in is appealing, sort of the vision from those old war movies where there is one gu...more
This overwhelming sense of sadness ran through my body as I finished.
Is it just me or does Saroyan write similar to Twain? Reading this book felt like I was reading Twain's Tom Sawyer, about a boy coming of age, young and innocent. Except Tom Sawyer's more naughty and loves getting into trouble, the more adventures, the better. With Homer, it was about understanding others and caring for others, taking more responsibility for his family especially since his brother's been drafted into the war....more
Is it just me or does Saroyan write similar to Twain? Reading this book felt like I was reading Twain's Tom Sawyer, about a boy coming of age, young and innocent. Except Tom Sawyer's more naughty and loves getting into trouble, the more adventures, the better. With Homer, it was about understanding others and caring for others, taking more responsibility for his family especially since his brother's been drafted into the war....more
In a rare occurrence, I actually enjoyed the film version better than the book. Mickey Rooney really makes this story come alive. In fact, I stopped the film because I was enjoying it, and wanted to read the book first. Did so, then went back to the film.
The book does contain Saroyan's worldview on humanity at a time when it had to be thought about...during World War II. I would say that his worldview represents much of the modernism that was popular in his day as it was moving out of America's...more
The book does contain Saroyan's worldview on humanity at a time when it had to be thought about...during World War II. I would say that his worldview represents much of the modernism that was popular in his day as it was moving out of America's...more
This book was written during WW2 and there are plenty of Rockwell-esque moments here--boys running around a small town with colorfully-nicknnamed chums, creaky old guy running the local telegraph station, women with big hair attending their monthly social gathering. But there's real depth here as well, and insightful comments on the human condition, particularly during the pain of wartime.
I ran across this author as part of the Best Short Stories of the Century anthology and recommend him as a...more
I ran across this author as part of the Best Short Stories of the Century anthology and recommend him as a...more
This is an authentic coming-of-age story set during WWII in the San Joaquin valley of California. Short chapters, a 14 yr-old boy taking care of his mother and siblings, and a community of various characters made this an easy read and easier to relate. Bittersweet as he finds himself delivering telegrams regarding a variety of life circumstances. I was surprised to enjoy it as I look for books to teach to high school freshmen. Much more naive than our current teens; yet, same learning of the con...more
![Claudia aka Chiara [la viandante dei libri]](http://d.gr-assets.com/users/1347783814p2/10900182.jpg)
Aug 24, 2012
Claudia aka Chiara [la viandante dei libri]
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Felicemente diversi
In questa "Commedia Umana" ritroviamo personaggi così caratterizzati e delineati da divenire quasi idealtipici. Sin dalla scelta dei nomi dei protagonisti, Homer e Ulysses, Saroyan dà conto della possibilità di rappresentare la commedia umana, i tipi umani in tutte le differenze. Homer narra le sue vicende, il suo passaggio dall'infanzia all'età adulta senza sperimentare l'adolescenza. Quando Homer racconta alla propria madre che si è sentito solo, diverso per la prima volta i...more
In questa "Commedia Umana" ritroviamo personaggi così caratterizzati e delineati da divenire quasi idealtipici. Sin dalla scelta dei nomi dei protagonisti, Homer e Ulysses, Saroyan dà conto della possibilità di rappresentare la commedia umana, i tipi umani in tutte le differenze. Homer narra le sue vicende, il suo passaggio dall'infanzia all'età adulta senza sperimentare l'adolescenza. Quando Homer racconta alla propria madre che si è sentito solo, diverso per la prima volta i...more
All'inizio lo trovavo un po' stucchevole. E a me lo stucchevole non dispiace. C'è un po' di Frank Capra qui.
C'è da dire che l'ho letto in uno stato psichico particolare.
Non era certo il momento adatto, personalmente, per una storia così, anche se proseguendo la lettura ho iniziato ad entrare in sintonia con i personaggi e quell'ingenuità di cui parlava qualcuno è forse voluta, per esorcizzare quei momenti, come accennato anche nella prefazione:
Nella Commedia umana quindi l’autore non si propone...more
C'è da dire che l'ho letto in uno stato psichico particolare.
Non era certo il momento adatto, personalmente, per una storia così, anche se proseguendo la lettura ho iniziato ad entrare in sintonia con i personaggi e quell'ingenuità di cui parlava qualcuno è forse voluta, per esorcizzare quei momenti, come accennato anche nella prefazione:
Nella Commedia umana quindi l’autore non si propone...more
4 likes · like · see review
May 27, 2012
K.D. Oliveros
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to K.D. by:
501 Must Read Books (Children's)
The place is Ithaca, a fictional small town in California's San Joaquin Valley. The year is 1943 and World War II is on-going. The Macauley family, just like any other families, is taking the brunt of war: the father is dead, the eldest son Marcus is in the war front, the mother is working in a factory, the daughter has left the school and is looking for work, the 14-y/o Homer has taken the job as a telegraph messenger to help support the family including his younger brother, the 4-y/o Ulysses.
T...more
T...more
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William Saroyan was an American - Armenian author. The setting of many of his stories and plays was Fresno, California (sometimes under a fictional name), the center of Armenian-American life in California and where he grew up.
Saroyan was born in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants from Bitlis, Turkey. At the age of three, after his father's death, Saroyan was placed in the orphanage in Oakl...more
More about William Saroyan...
Saroyan was born in Fresno, California to Armenian immigrants from Bitlis, Turkey. At the age of three, after his father's death, Saroyan was placed in the orphanage in Oakl...more
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“You must not be unkind, especially when it happens that you're right.”
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“People are people. Don't be afraid of them.”
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