Book: An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Krishna
This book was written in 1925. The first surprise to me was how well the story is told. It is in modern English, as this author lived in the early 20th century, and the narrative flows beautifully and builds up tension and suspense slowly, ratcheting up consistently. (No, this is not a suspense novel). It is remarkably well written, and I was often reminded of the writing style and storytelling brilliance of Charles Dickens, especially his The Great Expectations, even though, to reiterate, there is no great suspense or twist in this book, as there is in the book by Dickens.
The story opens with a family, very poor, set in their ways and deep in their beliefs in God, proselytizing in the streets of Denver. They have moved from city to city, living barely above subsistence level. The father Asa Griffiths is a severe man, quoting scriptures constantly, and is rather incompetent in the practical sense. His wife Elvira Griffiths bought into this wholeheartedly and was a deeply religious woman who taught her family to live as Good People. Their eldest daughter Esta seems devoted to the way of life, but her younger brother Clyde, cannot stand it. He sees boys of his age having the comforts of life, good clothes, food that is varied and tasty, an education, which is denied to him for no good reason. Besides he cannot see his way out of this, and is pained. His two younger siblings, Julia and Frank are too small to understand or like or hate the vagabond lifestyle.
This story is about Clyde, who plans to run away when he can no longer bear this, especially when the family is planning to move to yet another city in what seems to him as a never ending stream of migrations and humiliating singing in the streets, barely a step ahead of panhandling, as it seems to him. But before he can act on it, his sister Esta, the seemingly well adjusted kid, runs away with a boy she met, and with the same speed comes back pregnant, abandoned by him. Since Asa will not allow her back, Clyde’s mom houses her in an apartment in another part of the town and secretly looks after her, struggling for money and borrowing from Clyde.
In the meanwhile, Clyde secures a job with a chemist and then moves up to get a job at the upmarket Green-Davidson hotel as a bellboy. He gets a group of friends, and saves and spends money on himself, buying himself nice clothes and shoes. That is not all he picks up. His new friends Ratterer, Higgelund and Arthur take him to a brothel and introduce him to the pleasures of the flesh. A virgin, all this is heady and new to Clyde.
When he meets Hortense, the cheap but pretty girl who has high ambition, Clyde falls head over heels in love with her but she keeps him dancing to her tune while she does not have any interest in him except for what he spends on her. She escalates her (wily) demands and finally asks him to buy a fur coat that costs several months of his salary. He pays partly for it, but still Hortense Briggs keeps stringing him along.
When a friend “borrows” a car from his employer (An expensive Buick) and as a big party they go to a far away place, they are late returning and in a hurry to get back to the hotel on time, they run over a child, killing the girl, and in panic trash the car. The driver and the girlfriend get arrested but all the others run away in panic to avoid jail. Clyde changes his name and starts fresh again in Chicago, doing menial jobs and then finally gets a job as a bellboy in a big hotel there – not as posh as Green-Davidson but good enough.
His mother is in shock and cannot believe that his boy would be involved in a scandal like that. However, when he writes back to her, she tells him of a rich uncle in Lycargus, who owns a Collar factory there and is doing well.
Accidentally, he meets Samuel Griffiths in the same hotel and introduces him. Samuel invites him over to Lycargus, promising him a job at his factory, more out of guilt that his brother Asa (Clyde’s dad) did not get a fair shake of family fortunes due to mental instability.
Clyde is hated on sight by Samuel’s son, Gilbert and his dislike intensifies when everyone says that Clyde looks just like him but ‘is better looking’. He shoves Clyde in a corner, in a menial job, washing collars since his father insisted that he be given a job.
When Samuel visits the factory, he feels that Clyde, being a Griffiths should not be seen washing collars but wants him transferred as a supervisor. This department is full of girls, and one girl in particular, Roberta Alden, catches Clyde’s eye. She falls for him too, but since the Griffiths have a strict rule against workplace romance, they meet on the sly and against her wishes, Clyde coldly forces her to have sex with him.
She gets pregnant and in the meanwhile, he finds that the rich society of Lycargus has opened its doors to him and what is more, one of the richest, Sondra Finchley, falls in love with him and wants to marry him! Riches and comfort at last! Only if he can escape from Roberta. He tries to get her pregnancy aborted, with her consent, but to no avail.
Finally, she says that the only way out for her is if he marries her, and then, after a decent interval and the child’s birth, she will let him go. But that would be the end of his dream with Sondra.
He sees a news item where a boat was drowned with a couple in a lake. They found the body of the girl but not that of the boy. This gives him an idea… Can he go through with this plan to get out of his predicament?
The story is well told, his slow transformation to riches and a slow moral degradation well told. His plans to execute murder and the last minute change of heart are also extremely well told. The subsequent turn of events and his clumsy efforts to get out of trouble are good but the third half of the book, which is a courtroom drama is brilliant, as well.
In the meanwhile, especially at the end, there are thought provoking discussions on the nature of faith, morality, true guilt and really informed viewpoints, especially for a book written in 1925. Taking into consideration the story, the narrative style and the issues discussed, this book could have been written today with minor changes (in language style) and will still be considered relevant.
The ending of the story is a bit surprising, at least to me but what is surely an epilog, though it is not named as such, has a pleasing symmetry with the beginning of the book.
In all, a very surprisingly well written book. As I said before, with minor changes of language (for instance the “Gee”s and “anyhow”s sprinkled liberally and the word gay (which now has an acquired, different popular meaning) it could read like a book written today and you could read it as a modern story!
This book deserves a 8/10
— Krishna