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Collected here in one volume is James T. Farrell's renowned trilogy of the youth, early manhood, and death of Studs Lonigan: Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and Judgment Day. In this relentlessly naturalistic portrait, Studs starts out his life full of vigor and ambition, qualities that are crushed by the Chicago youth's limited social and economic environment. Studs's swaggering and vicious comrades, his narrow family, and his educational and religious background lead him to a life of futile dissipation. Ann Douglas provides an illuminating introductory essay to Farrell's masterpiece, one of the greatest novels of American literature. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.… (more)
User reviews
The trilogy is often pegged as an example of "naturalism" or "realism" ala Dresier. It is also typically taken to
The interesting part is Studs himself, for all his racism, abusiveness, aimlessness, sloth, and other failings is very sympathetic character. Furthermore, his principle conflicts seem to be internal struggles that take place when his more benign, good natured interests conflict with his imagined tough guy persona (the one that is "the real stuff"). It Studs' felt need to live up to a reputation (real or imagined) earned in the 8th grade and, of course, conditioned by the local notions of "manhood" that seems to me to lead to his unfortunate end.
The final book of the trilogy, Judgment Day, is the longest of the three and my favorite. It has a lot more going on than just what is in Studs Lonigan’s head.
This final volume really gives a compelling view of the Great Depression, focusing as it does on the middle class characters and what they lose because of the depression. Because these people have jobs, own their own businesses, invest in real estate, speculate on the stock market, they seem more familiar and relevant to me than dirt farmers (Grapes of Wrath), labor agitators (USA Trilogy), or other soup line characters from books and movies about the Great Depression.
Except for compulsive “list” readers, I would recommend skipping the first two volumes and only reading Judgment Day. It stands alone and, I think, is the best of the three.
Farrell writes a quasi-Joycian style epic trilogy covering the life and thinking of a Irish-Catholic-wantabe living on the Southside of Chicago from a teenager during pre-WWI until his early death during the depression.
Best line: "Misery loves company, but what the hell good does company
I'm not a fan of the Joycian style. Ulysses and Portrait was a beating for me. I value the authors who can cut to the essense of the experience.
While Farrell exhibits a gritty realism in his story of Chicago his prose has too many "rough" edges for my taste. The book seems dated in a way that does not happen with Dreiser or Norris, both of whom I admire more than Farrell.