“Dusk—of a summer night.
And the tall walls of the commercial heart of an American city of perhaps 400,000 inhabitants—such walls as in time may linger as a mere fable.”
One of the more interesting things about this novel is that it came out in 1925, a few months after The Great Gatsby. I don’t think it’s likely, but I would be curious to know if Dreiser made any changes to this text in response. The two books are not hugely similar in terms of plot, but they do cover a lot of the same territory thematically. This novel is long, about four times longer than The Great Gatsby, and not nearly so well written. Which is a shame here. Another book this reminds me of partially is Native Son, despite how very different they are, because both culminate in a long court scene where the general humanity of the main character is publicly and repeatedly called into question in a way to try to save them from prison.
The novel begins with a family doing Christian charity work in the streets, with their young son along for the ride. From there, we begin to get a shape of the life of the main character, Clyde Griffith, who ends up getting work in in hotels, and learning to deal with limited financial means. But he has a hidden character too, and a taste for a richer lifestyle. He begins running with a group of boys who also like this and are willing to get it in underhanded ways. This results in a stolen care, a drunken joyride, and a dead pedestrian. Clyde is not implicated in the death but runs off anyway, constantly asserting his innocence in the matter. For as you will see, he sees himself as a good person.
Later, he finds out he has a rich uncle and ends up meeting him in his work in a hotel, introduces himself, and asks for a job. The uncle both touched and horrified by the request offers him an entry-level position at his factory back East, but nothing promised beyond that. Clyde takes the job, shows an affinity for the work, and earns a promotion before long. He’s never really invited out socially with his uncle’s family, but does find his way into the social circle of his cousin by accident, and gets a taste for the life, even though he can’t afford it. He also has begun a relationship with one of his workers, forbidden by company policy and ill-advised in any sense. You can see where this is going with the secret relationship in one part of his life and a growing taste for a richer social circle. Of course, his girlfriend gets pregnant just about the time he falls in love with one of the rich girls.
Well, the book is called “An American Tragedy” for a reason, and if you’ve seen the movie adaptation, A Place in the Sun, you already know what happens.
If you’ve read other Dreiser, you also know or could guess the book is very workman with its prose, maudlin and obvious with its topic and idea, and more or less a compelling story, but one that probably doesn’t need to be 800 pages to work.
