Status
Available
Collection
Genres
Publication
Mariner Books (2005), Edition: First Mariner printing, 256 pages
Description
A PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST WINNER OF THE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR FICTION "Stunning."--USA Today "A master American novelist." --Vanity Fair Set in Eisenhower-era Chicago, An Unfinished Season brilliantly evokes a city, an epoch, and a shift in ideals through the closely observed story of nineteen-year-old Wilson Ravan. In his summer before college, Wils finds himself straddling three worlds: the working-class newsroom where he's landed a coveted job as a rookie reporter, the whirl of glittering North Shore debutante parties where he spends his nights, and the growing cold war between his parents at home. With unparalleled grace, Ward Just brings Wils's circle to radiant life. Through his finely wrought portraits of a father and son, young lovers, and newsroom dramas, Just also stirringly depicts an American political era.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member RidgewayGirl
An Unfinished Season is Ward Just's coming of age story set in Chicago of the 1950s. The year before Wils goes off to college is the year his father sees his control of his business challenged as his workers strike. His mother is frightened and his father begins carrying a gun in a duffel he
More than the story itself, the center of this book is the city of Chicago and the atmosphere of the 1950s. Just writes beautifully, and here he puts his skills to work describing the politics and manners of a world just beginning to change. Wils is less important than he thinks he is, but what nineteen-year-old is, and its through his eyes we get a snapshot of the world at a very specific time and place. Just is an underappreciated writer of great skill and heart and I'm always happy to read one of his books.
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carries everywhere with him. Wils gets a summer job at a local Chicago paper and spends his time juggling two worlds; the gritty, hyped up atmosphere of the newsroom and the genteel debutante parties he attends several times a week. He's not sure what he wants to do with his life, but he knows he doesn't want to follow along the well worn paths set for the well-heeled sons of the affluent families of the North Shore. More than the story itself, the center of this book is the city of Chicago and the atmosphere of the 1950s. Just writes beautifully, and here he puts his skills to work describing the politics and manners of a world just beginning to change. Wils is less important than he thinks he is, but what nineteen-year-old is, and its through his eyes we get a snapshot of the world at a very specific time and place. Just is an underappreciated writer of great skill and heart and I'm always happy to read one of his books.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Ward Just's AN UNFINISHED SEASON is not at all what I'd expected. It was better. It is a coming-of-age kind of story, but several cuts above most books of that sort. Just brings a kind of sophistication and artistry seldom seen in books about growing up and falling in love. Granted there is the
Set in Chicago and its northern suburbs in the early fifties, the McCarthy years, the Rosenbergs, Boss Daley, the heyday of great newspapers and reporting - all that stuff is in here, along with a fine and varied cast of complex and realistic characters, from its young hero, Wils Ravan, his parents, his bosses at the paper, his girlfriend, Aurora, and her sad and disturbed psychiatrist father (a survivor of the Bataan death march). And it all flows together so naturally. It keeps you pausing to consider a particularly good turn of phrase, but also keeps you turning the pages to learn what will happen next.
Just's uncanny ability to recreate a sense of place and era brought to mind at least two other writers I have read with great enjoyment - one is the late Frederick Busch, who was, I believe, a close friend of Just's. The other is Larry Watson, closer to my own age, but whose skill in the aforementioned skills of place and time - as well as fascinating and fully realized characters - were so very evident in his first and most recent novels, MONTANA 1948 and AMERICAN BOY.
But Ward Just is also totally unique in his style and subjects. I'm only two books into his works so far - so many more yet to read, I know. But I'm sure gonna try. This guy is GOOD!
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knowledge and heartbreak that often comes with hindsight in such matters, but (and I wish I had a little more sophistication in describing this beautiful book) Jeeze, this is one helluva story!Set in Chicago and its northern suburbs in the early fifties, the McCarthy years, the Rosenbergs, Boss Daley, the heyday of great newspapers and reporting - all that stuff is in here, along with a fine and varied cast of complex and realistic characters, from its young hero, Wils Ravan, his parents, his bosses at the paper, his girlfriend, Aurora, and her sad and disturbed psychiatrist father (a survivor of the Bataan death march). And it all flows together so naturally. It keeps you pausing to consider a particularly good turn of phrase, but also keeps you turning the pages to learn what will happen next.
Just's uncanny ability to recreate a sense of place and era brought to mind at least two other writers I have read with great enjoyment - one is the late Frederick Busch, who was, I believe, a close friend of Just's. The other is Larry Watson, closer to my own age, but whose skill in the aforementioned skills of place and time - as well as fascinating and fully realized characters - were so very evident in his first and most recent novels, MONTANA 1948 and AMERICAN BOY.
But Ward Just is also totally unique in his style and subjects. I'm only two books into his works so far - so many more yet to read, I know. But I'm sure gonna try. This guy is GOOD!
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LibraryThing member mbergman
This is one of those books that's probably very good but just didn't capture my imagination. It's about the experiences of a young man in the summer before he goes off to college (at the University of Chicago). He's from a wealthy family & spends many an evening at debutante parties, but at the
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same time he has to confront some of life's harsher realities. Early on, there's a good deal of talk about the character of the Midwest (he lives with his parents on a golf course out beyond the exclusive North Shore Chicago suburbs but spends a good deal of time in the city). One of the blurbs compares it to Edith wharton & Henry James, & it's that preoccupation with the manners of the social & intellectual elite that accounts for its failure to appeal to me. Show Less
LibraryThing member carterchristian1
A summer in the life of a young man in the 1950s . The country was changing but it was a time when this conveyed only an uneasiness. Reviewers have commented they started it hopefully, then were dissapointed. Maybe that was just the 50s.
LibraryThing member etxgardener
Wils Raven is a young man from an unhappy family living in the exurbs of Chicago in 1953. His father's business (and reputation) is floundering as the result of a nasty labor strike at his printing business and his mother is alienated by a distant husband and the terminal illness of her father.
At one of these parties he meets Aurora Brule, the daughter of a prominent psychiatrist, but also the product of a dysfunctional family. Of course they are destined to come together. However, when tragedy strikes, Wils must grow up quickly, and he finds that life hardly ever turns out to be like one dreams it will be.
Ward Just gets the period atmosphere just right & tells this coming of age story with perception and grace.
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What lies ahead during the summer in-between graduating from high school and his Freshman year at the University of Chicago is an exotic (to him) job as a gofer at a third-rate tabloid newspaper and a dizzying round of debutante parties in the north shore Chicago suburbs.At one of these parties he meets Aurora Brule, the daughter of a prominent psychiatrist, but also the product of a dysfunctional family. Of course they are destined to come together. However, when tragedy strikes, Wils must grow up quickly, and he finds that life hardly ever turns out to be like one dreams it will be.
Ward Just gets the period atmosphere just right & tells this coming of age story with perception and grace.
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LibraryThing member bluesviola
I concur with : mbergman | Jan 28, 2007
I had trouble remembering that i had even read the darn thing. Got sucked in, expecting it to get better, it never did.
I had trouble remembering that i had even read the darn thing. Got sucked in, expecting it to get better, it never did.
LibraryThing member Gary10
Very satisfying story centered on a 19-year old and his family in Chicago's Gold Coast in 1951. Well written and engaging.
LibraryThing member CatieN
Wils Ravan is 19, lives outside of Chicago with his well-to-do parents. He will be starting college in the fall, but until then, he is at loose ends and is spending his last summer at home going to debutante parties/dances and working as a gofer at one of the city papers. Wils is straddling two
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very different worlds, the privileged life of the suburbs and the gritty life of the city, and he finds that is a difficult thing to do. Ward Just brings 1950s Chicago alive and also his characters without any wasted words. Enjoyed this book very much. Show Less
LibraryThing member elenchus
I sense An Unfinished Season soon will become for me a favourite Chicago book.
Set in the 1950s and reflecting on class interactions in the post-war culture, I'm not certain what is historical, what imagined. It is written at arms length: dialogue not set off in quotation marks or given a paragraph
The story is rendered as a constellation from familiar stars: the appropriated stars are known individually, but like myth the story adds morality and a cultural weight quite independent of these. In the case of An Unfinished Season, the points of light already known are many: the Red Scare and union busting; a Freudian clinical case discussed by survivors of Auschwitz; the Bataan Death March; the Chicago press fighting the Democratic Machine; Marlon Brando; a poet negotiating a truce between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. The resulting constellation is spare, resonant, and I am tempted to take it as the cultural distillation of its era.
Was Skokie ever (is it still?) characterised by peat bogs? Curious.
Set in the 1950s and reflecting on class interactions in the post-war culture, I'm not certain what is historical, what imagined. It is written at arms length: dialogue not set off in quotation marks or given a paragraph
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break, consequently is (deliberately so, I think) momentarily confusing at points as to whether the line is spoken or internal dialogue, or simply relaying events. Eventually the writing reminded me of The Great Gatsby, though it's been years since I've read that and I've not confirmed Fitzgerald used a similar narrative style. But the comparison fits the plot, too: a young person, somewhat at sea in high society, meets a girl and faces moral choices which frame the rest of his life.The story is rendered as a constellation from familiar stars: the appropriated stars are known individually, but like myth the story adds morality and a cultural weight quite independent of these. In the case of An Unfinished Season, the points of light already known are many: the Red Scare and union busting; a Freudian clinical case discussed by survivors of Auschwitz; the Bataan Death March; the Chicago press fighting the Democratic Machine; Marlon Brando; a poet negotiating a truce between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus. The resulting constellation is spare, resonant, and I am tempted to take it as the cultural distillation of its era.
Was Skokie ever (is it still?) characterised by peat bogs? Curious.
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LibraryThing member Amusedbythis
This is a very well-written story of a privileged young man's summer between high school and college. It is set in 1950s Chicago and vividly portrays its characters.
The tone is similar to that of Fitzgerald but the writing, although descriptive and engrossing, is not quite as clear. The author
When I read this book and initially wrote this review, I believed that I had never read his books before. I was mistaken; I had read Echo House. An Unfinished Season is much better than that novel.
The tone is similar to that of Fitzgerald but the writing, although descriptive and engrossing, is not quite as clear. The author
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even mentions Gatsby. When I read this book and initially wrote this review, I believed that I had never read his books before. I was mistaken; I had read Echo House. An Unfinished Season is much better than that novel.
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LibraryThing member franoscar
Read on Kindle (sale book). Spoilers (if I remember). This is well written, no question. And I guess the young man is supposed to be naive & inexperienced & not know what he doesn't know...but he wasn't very appealing. I guess there is not supposed to be a "bad guy", just tragedy. I wasn't sure
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what I was supposed to think about the girl's father with the instant diagnoses, it seemed nutty in a different way from the rest of his story. Show Less
LibraryThing member m.belljackson
"...we sat smoking in silence."
Will Just brings Chicago to readers in an alert, yet nuanced manner.
An Unfinished Season delivers many contrasting family intrigues, from Wils and his father to Aurora and her father.
The evocative ice hockey on the pond sets up a love/hate for Wils father as he
with the labor union picketing his print shop, then caves into his wife's odd demands.
"He was attractive to women
because it looked as if he could handle himself and anyone else, and because he seemed to withhold so much."
This could also describe Aurora's father.
Both fathers are more compelling than Wils with his debutante parties and so the endings falter,
yet the book is definitely worth keeping to read again.
Will Just brings Chicago to readers in an alert, yet nuanced manner.
An Unfinished Season delivers many contrasting family intrigues, from Wils and his father to Aurora and her father.
The evocative ice hockey on the pond sets up a love/hate for Wils father as he
Show More
refuses to compromise with the labor union picketing his print shop, then caves into his wife's odd demands.
"He was attractive to women
because it looked as if he could handle himself and anyone else, and because he seemed to withhold so much."
This could also describe Aurora's father.
Both fathers are more compelling than Wils with his debutante parties and so the endings falter,
yet the book is definitely worth keeping to read again.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Pulitzer Prize (Finalist — Fiction — 2005)
The Morning News Tournament of Books (Quarterfinalist — 2005)
Great Lakes Book Award (Winner — Fiction — 2005)
Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize (Fiction — 2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
8.25 inches
ISBN
061856828X / 9780618568284
UPC
046442568289