Nate's review
The Bostonians (Modern Library Classics)
by Henry James
Nate's review
The Bostonians (Modern Library Classics) by Henry James
Nate's review
rating:
A tense, sometimes funny, ultimately sad, but always wordy,love triangle. Two awful people trying to step on the same perfect flower.
Henry James was doing his thing before the whole "iceberg" theory of fiction came about. There's not a lot of "submerged" story. Instead he drops the whole damn iceberg on your lap and points out to you inch by inch its various icy pits, bumps, and fissures. Yes, that kind of detail, which manifests itself in pages and pages blackened with long and winding sentences, can be off-putting to a modern reader and I don't blame a lot of people for not liking him, but on a Sunday morning, in the right comfy chair, with the right, wakeful hot beverage within reach, and if the neighbors aren't breaking down the walls around you that day, you might fall under the spell of his tense, clever plot and the vast psychology of his characters, and really like it. I sure did.
Henry James was doing his thing before the whole "iceberg" theory of fiction came about. There's not a lot of "submerged" story. Instead he drops the whole damn iceberg on your lap and points out to you inch by inch its various icy pits, bumps, and fissures. Yes, that kind of detail, which manifests itself in pages and pages blackened with long and winding sentences, can be off-putting to a modern reader and I don't blame a lot of people for not liking him, but on a Sunday morning, in the right comfy chair, with the right, wakeful hot beverage within reach, and if the neighbors aren't breaking down the walls around you that day, you might fall under the spell of his tense, clever plot and the vast psychology of his characters, and really like it. I sure did.
