Andy and Darcy’s Blog

I have read some literature! I can tell that its literature because there is a theme. This book is about a man, Roger, and his three grown daughters who are all at different points in their lives. The theme is “You live on through your children”. Roger’s wife told him those words before she died (before the story begins). Roger’s disposition sometimes settles into a melancholy state of disbelief and loss of faith. Other times he remembers his wife’s words and then he makes an effort to know his daughters better.

One of his daughters is the stereotype of the traditional mother. Another of his daughters is a single teacher in New York that is working day and night to improve the education of the poor. And his other daughter is a newly married society-seeking sybarite. There are other themes in this book that I won’t mention. If you like themes and discussions with the literary elite, then this book may be for you.

This book paints a vivid picture of New York in the early 20th century. There aren’t any sky scrapers, but it is a very crowded city of immigrants. The second half of the book describes the situation the families dealt with as Europe entered into WWI.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about this book was the descriptions of New York, but I will probably never read it again. This book was a lot better than The Shroud of the Thwacker that I have been ready concurrently. Here is the one word that sums it all up…hopefully I’m using it properly: Eh.