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Group Reads -> December 2022 -> Nomination thread (Ambition - won by The Custom of the Country and A Ladder to the Sky)
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A Ladder to the Sky
by John BoyneA deliciously dark tale of ambition' Observer
'Gripping ... chilling and darkly comic tale of unrelenting ambition' Daily Express
You've heard the old proverb about ambition, that it's like setting a ladder to the sky. It can lead to a long and painful fall.
If you look hard enough, you will find stories pretty much anywhere. They don't even have to be your own. Or so would-be-novelist Maurice Swift decides early on in his career.
A chance encounter in a Berlin hotel with celebrated author Erich Ackerman gives Maurice an opportunity. For Erich is lonely, and he has a story to tell; whether or not he should is another matter.
Once Maurice has made his name, he finds himself in need of a fresh idea. He doesn't care where he finds it, as long as it helps him rise to the top. Stories will make him famous, but they will also make him beg, borrow and steal. They may even make him do worse.
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Thanks
I'll jump in and nominate:The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
From Penguin Random House:
ABOUT THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1918, The Magnificent Ambersons chronicles the changing fortunes of three generations of an American dynasty. The protagonist of Booth Tarkington’s great historical drama is George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled and arrogant grandson of the founder of the family’s magnificence. Eclipsed by a new breed of developers, financiers, and manufacturers, this pampered scion begins his gradual descent from the midwestern aristocracy to the working class.
Today The Magnificent Ambersons is best known through the 1942 Orson Welles movie, but as the critic Stanley Kauffmann noted, “It is high time that [the novel] appear again, to stand outside the force of Welles’s genius, confident in its own right.”
“The Magnificent Ambersons is perhaps Tarkington’s best novel,” judged Van Wyck Brooks. “[It is] a typical story of an American family and town–the great family that locally ruled the roost and vanished virtually in a day as the town spread and darkened into a city. This novel no doubt was a permanent page in the social history of the United States, so admirably conceived and written was the tale of the Ambersons, their house, their fate and the growth of the community in which they were submerged in the end.”
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Having already read that one as, doubtless, many of you have too, I nominate…
The Hustler (1959)
As in The Queen's Gambit, this book is about an intense and highly competitive activity, where questions of drive and character are what makes the difference. Those at the very top of their field operate in the zone. Something which seems to interest Walter Tevis and his millions of readers.
I don’t know much about chess, or have an interest, but I was gripped by The Queen’s Gambit. I am sure the same will apply with The Hustler despite not caring about the game of Pool.
Many of you will be familiar with the classic film that is based on the book.
Ambitious hustler Fast Eddie Felson wants to beat the best, Minnesota Fats. Like the film, this book is regarded as a Twentieth Century classic.
When it was published in 1959, The Hustler was hailed as the best novel written about pool in the long history of the game. The novel was turned into a film that starred Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason.
The Hustler is the story of Fast Eddie Felson, a poolroom hustler who travels from town to town conning strangers into thinking they could beat him at the game when in fact, he is a highly-skilled player who has never lost a game. But then he goes off to Chicago and comes face to face with Minnesota Fats, a king of the poolroom, and defeat, and the quest to get even.
I'm considering a few books. One of them, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess has been on my offline to read list for ages.In Earthly Powers Burgess created his masterpiece. At its center are two twentieth-century men who represent different kinds of power—Kenneth Toomey, eminent novelist, a man who has outlived his contemporaries to survive into honored, bitter, luxurious old age as a celebrity of dubious notoriety; and Don Carlo Campanati, a man of God, eventually beloved Pope, who rises through the Vatican as a shrewd manipulator to become the architect of church revolution and a candidate for sainthood.
Through the lives of these two modern men Burgess explores the very essence of power. As each pursues his career—one to sainthood, one to wealthy exile—their relationship becomes the heart of a narrative that incorporates almost everyone of fame and distinction in the social, literary, and political life of America and Europe. This astonishing company is joined together by the art of a great novelist into an explosive and entertaining tour de force that will captivate fans of sweeping historic fiction.
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I look forward to discovering what you decide to nominate Ben
Thanks Nigeyb. That will be my nomination although I accept it might be a bit long. It was on the Booker shortlist in 1980.I was a real Burgess fan when I was in secondary school and too young to understand him. I've wanted to give him a try in my later years!
I've always had Room at the Top by John Braine in mind as the archetypal English novel of ambition, and have always felt I ought to read it. The thing is, I've never really wanted to. So, this is NOT a nomination, just a pointless and probably irritating interjection. 😊 Unless someone comes up with a spectacular alternative I'm going with Susan's nomination A Ladder to the Sky, because I've not yet read it and I'd love to read another John Boyne. He's brilliant.
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In fiction, I'm thinking about My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, or The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton.
My first thought was actually Valley of the Dolls which I loved but it is trashy as well as having serious points to make about ambitious women.
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Edith Wharton’s compulsively readable 20th century classic about the conquests of Undine Spragg, the glamorous and insatiable social climber—now with a new 2022 introduction by Brandon Taylor.
Undine Spragg is beautiful—anyone in New York will admit to as much. But what is the point of beauty if no one can see you? The Spraggs left the Midwest in search of a glamorous life for their daughter. Now, cooped up in a gilded uptown hotel they can barely afford, they begin to fear their move to the big city was for naught. But Undine is determined. And Undine always gets her way.
What follows is a tactical climb to the pinnacle of affluence and early 20th-century high society that will amaze and mortify. Witty and devastating, The Custom of the Country is an astute comedy of manners and a scathing satire of upper-class life that bites to this day. More than a century after its original publication, Edith Wharton’s 1913 masterpiece remains an un-put-downable showcase for one of the most memorable, controversial anti-heroines in American literature.
Roman Clodia wrote: "Ok, so my nomination is The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton:That's tempting too. Another one I've wanted to read!
Roman Clodia wrote: "Ok, so my nomination is The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton:Edith Wharton’s compulsively readable 20th century classic about the conquests of Undine Spragg, the glamorous a..."
Don't know if it is one I want to read but the price is right - $1.99 on kindle in US.
I'll go with The Root of His Evil by James M. Cain. Story of a woman who is working as a waitress and works her way up the corporate ladder. Relatively short - less than 200 pages. Published in 1934.
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"I've always had Room at the Top by John Braine in mind as the archetypal English novel of ambition, and have always felt I ought to read it"
Susan wrote:
"We read Room at the Top a while ago, Sid. I think we had a sudden flurry of Angry Young Men novels, which I sort of recall, although they have blurred a bit in my mind!"
We did indeed, back in 2017, I've replied in more detail on our Working Class writing thread...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
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Here are the nominations:
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne (Susan)
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Kathleen)
The Hustler by Walter Tevis (Nigeyb)
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Ben)
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (Roman Clodia)
The Root of His Evil by James M. Cain (Jan)
Who else is nominating? Or thinking about it?
I'll leave it 24 hours and then get the poll up, unless anyone asks for more time
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Nigeyb wrote: "I've replied in more detail on our Working Class writing thread..."Thanks, Nigeyb.
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Click here to vote...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
Nominations:
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne (Susan)
The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington (Kathleen)
The Hustler by Walter Tevis (Nigeyb)
Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess (Ben)
The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton (Roman Clodia)
The Root of His Evil by James M. Cain (Jan)
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A Ladder to the Sky - 3 votes, 42.9%
The Custom of the Country - 2 votes, 28.6%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1 vote, 14.3%
Earthly Powers - 1 vote, 14.3%
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
Vote/change your vote here...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
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It's a two horse race now
Two great books duking it out
The Custom of the Country - 6 votes, 50.0%
A Ladder to the Sky - 5 votes, 41.7%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1 vote, 8.3%
Earthly Powers - 0 votes
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
Vote/change your vote here...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
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Two great books continuing to battle over top spot. The Custom of the Country just in front at the moment
The Custom of the Country - 7 votes, 50.0%
A Ladder to the Sky - 6 votes, 42.9%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1 vote, 7.1%
Earthly Powers - 0 votes
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
Vote/change your vote here...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
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A surge for Wharton
The Custom of the Country - 9 votes, 56.3%
A Ladder to the Sky - 6 votes, 37.5%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1 vote, 6.3%
Earthly Powers - 0 votes
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
Vote/change your vote here...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
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John Boyne attempting a brave comeback
The Custom of the Country - 9 votes, 52.9%
A Ladder to the Sky - 8 votes, 47.1%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 1 vote, 6.3%
Earthly Powers - 0 votes
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
Vote/change your vote here...
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...
Um...is it me, or does 52.9% + 47.1% + 6.3% add up to 106.3%?Just askin'. 😊
9 votes out of a total of 18 is clearly 50%. 1 vote = 5.5%, and 8 votes are 44.4%, leaving the slight rounding error.But checking the voting page, it's just that there is no vote for The Magnificent Ambersons, so the first two lines are correct.
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Nigeyb wrote: "As Susan suggests, given the popularity of both books let's do the winner at the Group Read and the second placed book as a buddy read 🙌🏻"Good plan. After all, we wouldn't want to base such a major decision on a slim 52% to 48% margin, would we? 😉
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It's ended all square
The Custom of the Country - 9 votes, 50.0%
A Ladder to the Sky - 9 votes, 50.0%
The Magnificent Ambersons - 0 votes
Earthly Powers - 0 votes
The Hustler - 0 votes
The Root of His Evil - 0 votes
So we will have two group reads in December 2022
Unprecedented
Thanks, as always, to you lovely people for the discussion, nominations, votes and insights
Don't go changin'
👏🏼
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How brilliant is that? Delighted they both qualified. Thanks, Nigeyb.
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
The Custom of the Country (other topics)The Magnificent Ambersons (other topics)
The Hustler (other topics)
The Root of His Evil (other topics)
Earthly Powers (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Walter Tevis (other topics)James M. Cain (other topics)
Anthony Burgess (other topics)
Booth Tarkington (other topics)
Edith Wharton (other topics)
More...
Our December 2022 theme is...
Ambition
Please nominate a 20th century book (either written in the 20th century or set in it) that is centred around the theme of ambition, and that you would like to read and discuss. It could be fiction or non-fiction
Please supply the title, author, a brief synopsis, and anything else you'd like to mention about the book, and why you think it might make a good book to discuss.
Happy nominating.