Customer Reviews

AN American Tragedy

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I began reading this book without knowing what it was about, except what was made clear by the title, a tragedy. After reading a few pages, I could not put it aside.

Although this book is by far the saddest I have ever read, I nevertheless consider it truly sensational, in the sense that in retelling "the tragedy" based on the real-life event, the author also fills its every page with the concerns that have forever confronted the human heart.

Raw, sinister and full-fledged suffering lurks just beneath the surface of this book's text, and it moved me to tears.

Laci Peterson you are not alone... In the beginning of the 20th century, in up-state New York, a very real and tragic event occurred and became the basis for Dreisser's novel, An American Tragedy. Clyde Griffiths, the central character of this novel, fell out of love with a co-worker, Roberta Alden, but not before she became pregnant with his child. Clyde fell madly, hopelessly in love with a younger, captivating and much wealthier woman, Sondra. So, Roberta and baby drown, initially mysteriously. The boat is recovered and found to have been rented to Clyde. Later, of course, Mr. Griffiths is charged with the crime, and his affair with Sondra is disclosed, though the media refer to Sondra as Miss X. Nothing but circumstantial evidence connects him to the crime.
What is "American" about this tragedy? I think the answer resides in Clyde's aspirations, their impact on all he touches, and the impact of the his past on the drive to dream fulfillment. Once Roberta has drown, Clyde swims to the shore of the lake, a new immigrant, a young man on the verge of what he hopes will be a new and glamorous world. It is, as one critic described, a vapid world, but it is what he wants nonethless. Behind him, at the bottom of that lake, rests his past -- a world of poverty, a world without opportunity, the world of his childhood. He came to that Lake with the intention of killing Roberta, but was spared the trouble. She fell overboard and all he had to do was nothing, simply let mom and baby sink, while he swims quietly to shore. But the past is not so easily shed. It sticks to him and ultimately brings him to trial for his actions, or his failure to act, and his intent to kill. Readers of this book might benefit from reading Elizabeth Hardwick's provocative, essay, "Seduction and Betrayal," though I think she errs in her contention that "the whole drive of the novel is to make us feel Clyde's loss..." Rather the whole drive of the novel is to make us feel that Clyde and everyone he touched lost. Drawn to a new world, but unable to shed the old, he drags everyone and everything down with him.
Trust me: no one will every say, "Gee, I wish An American Tragedy had been a bit longer." The novel is exhausting, unpredicatable and at times almost amateurish in its flow. Still, it has an infectious quality about it and, most unfortunately, continues to resonate.

Dreiser's story is very easy to read. He writes in a very descriptive style, giving many details to the story. I found it very interesting that the story was based on the life of Chester Gillette who drowned his pregnant girlfriend in a New York lake in 1906. The obvious tragedy in the book is the murder of an innocent girl and then the execution of the young man who killed the girl. But the real tragedy is one that is found in our society. Self-interest comes before any other value in our society. This self-interest is characterized by social and economical gain. While I believe the worship of social gain has subsided in the last century, the desire for economic gain has grown a great deal. So the real tragedy lies in this- that many people don't value anything other than self.

The book closely follows the life of Clyde Griffiths, a weak individual who seems to have no will of his own. The author tries to portray the main character as a cog with no freedom in society. This theme of Naturalism gives too much weight to the influence of genetics and environment. In reality, the main character made awful decision that were deserving of punishment.

The story was very interesting, and I found myself getting angry at the main character as he made poor (tragic) choices. At times, the book was slow because of the descriptive style. But overall the book was interesting, and shows the American tragedy.

This book was recommended to me by a Russian friend who said that Dreiser had been popular in the Soviet Union. I could immediately see why. Early on in the book I was gripped with the sense of impending doom. The tragedy takes 800 pages to unfold, but you know that something bad is coming from the start. It is as tragic as the best of Russian novels.

The 1920s setting is full of social and economic inequities and demonstrates how individuals struggle against the rigid lines often drawn in a capitalist society.

Overall, a good book to glimpse at life in the early 20th century and to watch the slow unraveling of a soul. It also forces the reader to confront issues such as guilt, responsibility, fairness and intention.

While the first half of the book is gripping, the second book is overwritten and becomes boring at times. Also, the protagonist's changes in character sometimes seem to occur too rapidly or unexpectedly to be realistic.

Worth a read to become acquainted with Dreiser's style.

This book was recommended to me by a Russian friend who said that Dreiser had been popular in the Soviet Union. I could immediately see why. Early on in the book I was gripped with the sense of impending doom. The tragedy takes 800 pages to unfold, but you know that something bad is coming from the start. It is as tragic as the best of Russian novels.

The 1920s setting is full of social and economic inequities and demonstrates how individuals struggle against the rigid lines often drawn in a capitalist society.

Overall, a good book to glimpse at life in the early 20th century and to watch the slow unraveling of a soul. It also forces the reader to confront issues such as guilt, responsibility, fairness and intention.

While the first half of the book is gripping, the second book is overwritten and becomes boring at times. Also, the protagonist's changes in character sometimes seem to occur too rapidly or unexpectedly to be realistic.

Worth a read to become acquainted with Dreiser's style.

Just a note, no one here has mentioned that this is based on a true event that took place in Herkimer county in 1906 I believe.

The film "A Simple Plan" could have easily been called "An American Tragedy," and the book "An American Tragedy" could have just as easily been called "A Simple Plan." The plan at the book's center seems so simple indeed. The novel's protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, impregnates a girl below his social station, and he's so terrified by the idea of being exposed and ruining his chances at a life as part of the social elite (and losing the local well-to-do beauty to whom he's hitched himself) that he actually finds himself driven to kill her as his only escape. But Clyde has a simple mind, and his efforts to claw his way out of a desperate situation that inexorably suffocates him is compelling fiction.

Theodore Dreiser has been called one of the worst great writers in the history of literature, and that claim is justified. He can hardly compose a sentence that doesn't drop like lead from the tongue. He's especially fond of the double negative, which can become pretty tedious in a 900+ page novel. And in retrospect, the amount of plot on display in his novel does not seem to warrant its length, but somehow, I was able to overcome these two factors and find myself engrossed in it anyway. It doesn't for one second become boring or slow. And it offers some especially candid and frank ideas about the nature of guilt and the culpability of those who take lives, whether they're working on the side of crime or the law. Most fascinating for me were the novel's final pages, when Clyde tries to turn to religion for solace when he's at his loneliest, but can't get around the notion that there's really nothing to turn to.

Dreiser pulls off quite a feat by making all of his characters sympathetic. I didn't want Clyde to get away scot-free with what he'd done, but my heart couldn't help but go out to him. Likewise, Roberta, the girl he wrongs, could have come across as shrewish in another author's hands (she does in the film version, "A Place in the Sun," if you're interested in a literature to film comparison) but she doesn't here. Even Sondra, who could have been so unlikeably spoiled, comes across as essentially a warm character.

1925 was the literary year for deconstructing the American Dream. Both "An American Tragedy" and "The Great Gatsby" came out that year, and while I have to admit that "Gatsby" is a better written book, "Tragedy" just has a visceral appeal for me, and it's the one I enjoyed more.

Yes, it is a very long book over 800 pages; yes it is definitely an American classic; yes, it is an tragedy; but whether it is a portrait of the dark side of the American Dream is debatable. Dreiser does a masterful job portraying the harsh realities of American life at the turn of the twentieth century. The factories, the class structure and the promise of success that eluded many people including our protagonists were the realities that an upwardly mobile young man would face. But as I read this book, I could not blame the American Dream for Clydes selfish ambition and crime as much as I blamed Clyde himself. To some extent, most of us who have not been born into position of wealth and power, seek to gain both through our careers, marriage and the friendships we forge; yet, very few of us will succumb to the manipulation and subterfuge as Clyde did. The fleeting promise of money, power and position were not responsible for Clydes crime. When we see such callousness and disregard for human life as demonstrated by Clyde we cannot bring ourselves to blame the perpetrator of the crime. Somehow people who do horrible things are not to blame for their actions- we psychologize their behavior by saying they are sick, or we minimize their behavior by saying that society is culpable, ie, racism, poverty, homophobia, or Twinkies are at least partly responsible.

Clyde plotted murder and used people because he was a bad person. He was evil. He used people for his own pleasure and advancement and when they got in his way he got rid of them. Dark side of the American Dream? Would Clyde behaved himself better if he raised in a socialist workers paradise? Would he faired better if society was more egalitarian? I do not think so. Some people are just evil. This is not so much a portrayal of the dark side of the American dream as much as it is a portrayal of the dark side of man.

Yes, it is a great book. Dreiser is a master at drawing the reader into the story. Without giving the plot away, the reader is drawn into the mind of Clyde as he plots his murder only to give into second thoughts and finds himself accused of a murder that he plotted out in detail, but did not intentionally commit. Clydes refusal to save Roberta and his behavior after the death her death accuses him. It's is truly a great book.

As a writer, this book stands as a shining example of perfect prose. Because of his descriptions, you as the reader are able to get a very clear and accurate picture of every character and scene in the book. And, unlike with say, some of Steinbeck's work, you actually care about these characters. You also are able to draw parallels throughout the novel, and those parallels are crucial to understanding the character of Clyde Griffiths, and why he ultimately does what he does. He's not thinking in terms of law, or morality, or what's "right." He's thinking only of himself. Other recent Amazon purchases I recommend: Under the Volcano by Lowry, The Losers' Club by Richard Perez

Inspired by the sensational details from a famous 1906 murder case -- in which a young man named Chester Gillette killed his girlfriend Grace Brown for being 'inconvenient' -- Theodore Dreiser had all the elements to paint a great portrait of American society on its rise as an industrial power at the turn of the 20th century.

The social barriers between the poor and the (new) rich, the tugging materialism, and an underlying puritanism made up the social fabric around which Dreiser recreated Clyde Griffiths as Gillette and Roberta Alden as Brown. Driven by their human impulses and then trapped by social and moral prejudices, the outcome was a monumental tragedy of wasted young lives for both characters.

This novel is long (over 800 pages), and the writing style is torturous. It could probably be more appreciated for its social-historical value than as 'classic literature'. If you haven't read anything by Dreiser previously, you may want to try 'Sister Carrie' before tackling this one.