Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The more things change, the more they stay the same, 4 Sep 1998
By A Customer
For me, the hope was to go back to a time when things moved slower and people were more hospitable to one another. I thought I could escape from the gossip and innuendo that recently seems to plague our daily lives. I thought I could escape from those whose rigid thinking prevents them from accepting change. What I found was a pleasant narrative that reminds us that the " old days " aren't necessarily what we thought they were. Indeed, there are glimpses of what we expect to find back then i.e. visions of magnificent mansions, fresh, breathy carriage rides through the snow, gala social events, etc. What most of us claim we would like to return to. However, what I also found was a spoiled, stubborn and ego-centric main character who can't seem to accept change, who is as inhospitable as can be and who, along with some of the other characters, is greatly affected by flow of daily gossip and whispered secrets. Mix this in with the coming change from horses to cars and from a tight, immobile society to a more homogenous blend of classes moving into a more migratory lifestyle and you have conflict galore as society shifts its focus in the early part of this century. For me, not necessarily a " I couldn't put it down until I finish " type of book. However, it is filled with enough nostalgia and disharmony to keep me interested. I was disappointed that, back then, it wasn't exactly as I thought it would be. In some ways, it was not very different from today. A good, not outstanding, solid book!
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Times, They are a changing, 23 Aug 1998
By A Customer
Bob Dylan hit it on the head in his song about time not standing still. While he wasn't speaking about small town society in Indiana, his words are relavent to this work. This book is wonderful example of how people destroy themselves by their inability, or unwillingness to grow and change. As I read the text, I kept on thinking about how many people I know who "are" the characters in the story. It is a very interesting study of small town society. As the small town becomes a city, the players change. Herein lies the books focus and drama. The ending, without giving anything away, Is very satisfying. The book left me feeling content and fullfilled, but not really wanting more information about the characters, as is sometimes the case. I definitely would recommend this book. It is a fast read, and its message is clear.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Plus ca change, 14 Aug 2009
'Major Amberson had made a fortune in 1873, when other people were losing fortunes.' So reads the first sentence of this hugely readable book ... but by now it is 1916 and the wheel of fortune is turning. New men are making new fortunes from the new-fangled automobile but spoiled Georgie Amberson Minafer, the major's grandson and heir reckons that the automobile is a passing fad: "Git a hoss, git a hoss,' he jeers.
The Ambersons have peaked and the only way is downhill, socially and financially, as their once splendid mansion is embraced by the encroaching, polluted city. They are incapable of changing with the times. What magnificently flawed characters Tarkington paints: proud, arrogant Georgie; his lovely mother whose fatal flaw is her adoration of her son; the sour spinster aunt who brings about tragedy not out of malice, but through her jealous loneliness. A fortune made and lost in three generations. And a novel as fresh today as 90 years ago when it was written.
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