A Rage to Live

by John O'Hara

Other authorsLouis Begley (Introduction)
Paperback, 2004

Status

Available

Call number

813.52

Collection

Publication

Modern Library (2004), Paperback, 752 pages

Description

Grace Caldwell Tate, the head of the leading family of Fort Penn, Pennsylvania, survives affairs, scandals, and disasters through her sheer determination.

User reviews

LibraryThing member jeffome
Interesting saga taking place in the WWI era in Harrisburg, PA (Fort Penn in the novel) near where i grew up as a kid. I enjoyed very much the daily life and social structure routine detail that one typically finds in O'Hara's books. Plenty of Pennsylvania Dutch references and names that i am very
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familiar with, but never encounter in my new home in Maine. And there was plenty of politics tucked away here as well, and the perspective in very interesting....i mean all the talk of the corruption and unfairness in today's political world pales in comparison to the truly corrupt backroom chicanery that went on in those days of smoke-filled backroom deals, and at a time when women still could not even vote. Believe me, things have changed a lot, and seemingly for the better, a fact quite often lost on too many.

The tale was kept interesting for me as it followed the trials and tribulations of the well-to-do Caldwell/Tate family, since it was full of completely unexpected twists and turns that i always seemed unprepared for. That in itself was a good thing, but it also sometimes left me wondering where are we going with this.....but then again, is not that also very true of our own lives? I'm an old car guy and there was lots of very specific descriptive, and accurate, i might add, references to wonderful old cars of the era, and that will always win you points in my book! I have usually enjoyed the O'Hara i have read thus far, and this was no exception. I have almost everything he wrote, so i look forward to the next one i pull from the shelf, whenever that will be.
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LibraryThing member trinibaby9
An interesting look at the evolution of females in society, and the prejudices which exist in smaller areas of America. I wasn't sure of this one in the beginning but it turned out to be quite good.
LibraryThing member charlie68
Perhaps in 1949 this would have ground-breaking fiction, but in 2016 it's ground that has been gone over has gone stale. Worth reading just to on a time travel trip to early twentieth-century Pennsylvania and experience the lives of these people but no earth shattering look into the human psyche.
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Maybe there is a reason why Mr. O' Hara has faded from the canvas of American writers. He's good but not great and certainly not timeless.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1949

Physical description

752 p.; 5.24 x 1.51 inches

ISBN

0812971353 / 9780812971354
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