Word: books
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1920-1929
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...breach between father and son gradually widens until John finally leaves his ancestral home to go north and work in Detroit as a bank clerk is merely the vehicle for the steady development of an atmosphere, which is obviously the author's chief excuse for writing the book. He accomplishes his end well, however, for the reader is left a real understanding of a class of people in the south which is often written about but seldom presented in such a sympathic and clear form...
...spite of certain good qualities in his style and his accurate portrayal of a social order, Mr. Young on the other hand can be accused of tiring the reader at many times during the book with repetition of scenes which add little to the final affect and make what should be a long short story a full sized novel. The characterization is all indirect and is best in the presentation of the Major's two maiden sisters, who command at the same time the reader's respect and his pity...
Built on a unique plan, the book starts with a discussion of the machine and an enumeration of some thirty of its essential features. This is followed by an identical analysis of the modern army, which along with the modern short story discussed in the next chapter, reproduces almost exactly the essential features of the machine. Such remarkable uniformity in such widely separated fields puts an obvious strain on the most compliant credulity. No doubt such analogies are entertaining and serve to make certain vague concepts more easily memorable, but they can hardly serve as a basis for serious study...
...applied to the American short story, perhaps because this is more closely allied to the author's usual sphere of influence. The implications of his economic theories cannot well help being too much for the treatment afforded by the hundred or so pages allowed this section of the book, and, after all, who is to tell whether mankind is more happy working eight hours a day on a production line or tolling sixteen on the hereditary farm? True it is, as Mr. O'Brien points out, that machines are becoming the masters of their operatives, but are these men worse...
...intelligent modern men. The author's racy style cuts sharply into one's mind and the very incisiveness with which his opinions are expressed cannot help stimulating reaction of some sort on the part of his readers. As stated in the preface, that is the real purpose of the book, and throughout its pages are scattered exhortations to the reader to disagree if he likes but to do some sort of thinking anyway. But there is little to disagree with in the criticism of the American short story with which the book ends. Mr. O'Brien is on familiar ground...