Sherwood Anderson, 1919 Date Read: 3/22/22
This is not a novel. Like Catch-22, it is a series of loosely connected vignettes. However, unlike Catch-22, these are not unpleasant to read.
I really don't have much to say about this book. There were some weird episodes, but for the most part, it was kinda meh. People living their lives. There's no point to it, no message, and no story. The author himself, in a letter to someone named Waldo Frank in 1916, calls it "a series of intensive studies of people of my hometown".
I know this because the copy I borrowed from the library consists of letters from and to the author, and commentary on the text, in addition to the actual "novel". The "novel" is 140 pages. The entire book is 234. There are also three pages at the beginning that are numbered with Roman numerals. 41 percent of this book is not the novel in question.
As I have said before, I don't read other people's opinions on the novels that comprise the List. I do not care what other people think about it. That's the entire point of what I'm doing. These books have been called "classics" and I'm reading them to see if I agree. Reading someone else's opinion on the novel will have no impact on what I think about it. I don't need to be told how amazing his use of symbolism is. I don't care. I'm not an English major. I'm just a reader. And if a "classic" doesn't appeal to readers, what's it a classic of?
Length: 140 pages
Rereadability: Nah
Classic: if anyone else had tried to publish this, they'd be told to keep their character study and use it to write a real novel.
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