Berg Books

I read this novel because it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1924. After reading it I've come to the conclusion 1923 must have been a pretty bad year for good novels or the Pulitzer Prize jury was out to lunch. This is one of most over dramatic, over written, boring novels I've read in some time. The prose is turgid, the characterization is poor, and the plot borders on the unbelievable.

Wully McLaughlin comes home wounded from the Civil War and while there falls in love at first sight with Christie. The last time Wully saw Christie she was a small girl but now she's an all grown up beauty. Wully secures her promise to marry him after the war so he returns to his unit. After the war is over Wully comes home to find Christie distant and cold - and soon finds out why. She is pregnant with another man's child. The rest of the novel is about how Wully and Christie deal with these scandalous events in this very rural, very close knit community.

This novel starts bad and gets worse. First, the scenes where Wully falls for Christie are simply melodramatic flimflam and almost entirely unbelievable. And the way the plot meanders along once Wully returns and the actions each take as they deal with their unfortunate circumstances are poorly thought out from a plotting standpoint.

This is definitely not a novel I'd recommend to anyone. It's a waste of valuable reading time.

This is a hard-to-find treasure that has been neglected by critics and the general public. As a 1924 Pulitzer Prize winner it shows the unmistakable character of excellence that caught the eyes of the committee eighty years ago. The story represents the very definition of what the jury is to look for in a novel, "the wholesome atmosphere of American life..." The setting is mid-century 1800s. Wully McLaughlin, a member of a Scots community in frontier Iowa, is alarmed by the behavior of his sweetheart when he returns from battle in the Civil War. I'm at a loss to understand how this gem could be so roundly neglected. I consider this work to be well deserving of its award and a must read for the serious reader of American literature.