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Jaume Llorens

Shaw knows how to write a good story. He keeps you reading until the last page. His plot is complex and interesting (albeit a tad trashy and potboilerish at times), but he really invests you in these characters and their trials and tribulations and makes you root for them to win in the end. Unfortunately, his representation of women is extremely dated and off-putting. They're sexually objectified, and only important in their relation to the men characters, who are Shaw's central focus.

The one exception is Gretchen, who finds several creative sparks that surprise and motivate her to pursue a handful of different careers. Out of all the women within the novel's pages, she comes the closest to being an independent character in her own right. But Shaw muddles this up too, by making the main thrust of her arc revolve completely around her failed romantic relationships and not her career.

Even the disappointing ending hinges on the "salacious" behavior of an important woman character. And, yes, it's primarily to provide a moment of pathos for one of the male characters at the novel's conclusion.

I realize sexism was normalized and accepted in the time period of the story, as well as the one in which it was written, but it doesn't make it any easier to read. And it's all the more surprising that the story ends in 1969, at the dawn of the women's liberation movement. This could've been a great opportunity for Shaw to address the events his women characters have gone through and reflect on how things are possibly beginning to change. But nope, the most he does is have his characters offhandedly criticize "those damn pot-smoking hippies" and that's as far as he delves into progressive social movements. What a waste. ( )

Irwin Shaw családregénye igazi sikerkönyv, mely egy szegény amerikai család életét mutatja be közvetlenül a második világháború utáni két évtizedben. Három főhőse van, a Joradache család gyermekei, akik egy new York melletti kisvárosban, egy szegényes pékműhely fölötti lakásból indulnak a felnőtt életbe… ( )

The good, the bad, the rich and the poor family saga. I really enjoyed the book and liked the mini series even better with Peter Strauss. ( )