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"Before you know it as the years go by, you're just like other people you have seen, with all those peculiar human ailments. Just another vehicle for temper and vanity and rashness and all the rest. Who wants it? Who needs it? These things occupy the place where a man's soul should be." -- Henderson the Rain King

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Martin Dressler

Book numero uno of my 2007 50 Book Challenge (yeah I'm doing it again) was Steven Millhauser's Pulitzer Prize winning novel Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer.

Dressler is an allegorical fairy tale of an over-ambitious young man set in New York City in the late 1800's. The story has all of the makings of a classic Greek tragedy, with Martin playing the role of the tragic hero as he goes from shopkeeper's son to hotel maven to broke. Although the book is technically adept and works well as a commentary on progress/the American dream/ etc., it didn't really resonate with me as the fun read I was expecting.

New York Times review
Wikipedia entry

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posted by Jamie at 4:45 PM