From the back cover:

A novel depicting the coming of age of Eugene Gant - - his boyhood in North Carolina and his growing passion to experience life. This was Wolfe's first book and is probably the one most widely read.

mass market paperback

Published in 1929, this book is autobiographical, with the main character, Eugene Gant, as a stand-in for the author. It shows him maturing from birth to the age of nineteen in the fictional town of Altamont, which many believe to be his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. Many of the characters in the book were based on real people from Asheville, and were often not portrayed in a pleasing manner, which resulted in an estrangement between Wolfe and his hometown.

The story has some very moving segments, one of them being the emotionally gripping chapter on the death of Ben Gant. But most of the book, with its opulent language, is too wordy, has too many lists and too many philosophical observations, and I found myself skipping entire sections.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book has been on my available shelf too long. I saw it on ciloma's wishlist, so I'm sending it to her in Idaho via media mail.

One of a two-pack that came in the mail today. Thanx a bunch!

I agree with pinklady60, too wordy, too philosophical, too many lists, too much opulent language. While I didn't skip any of it, I surely did put off picking it up after I put it down. I kept telling myself when this was written they didn't have television and Internet and authors had to be more descriptive. Education was probably at a premium, too, hence the philosophical bent. Dang those rants the author would go on. I found myself more than once gesturing with my hand to roll it along while reading. Not to make it sound totally awful, it wasn't, there were moments that were very touching, too.

On it's way to valpete

Thanks! Look forward to reading this.

Sending this along to someone who has this on her WishList. Enjoy!

Thank you so much for the wishlist book. I appreciate you thinking of me.

I was not drawn into this book as I hope to be. Thomas Wolfe writes beautifully with vivid descriptions of both people and scenes. I think one of the reasons I struggled with that I did not like the main character Eugene at all. In fact, I did not like any other characters. They were negative and always quarreling. It was like they never liked each other at all. No one seemed to appreciate the mother. And the mother was whiny.

The novel mostly takes place in the fictional town of Altamont, a stand-in for Ashville, North Carolina. The story takes place in the early years of the last century. This novel ends at about the same time as World War I. Eugene regards the mountains as prison walls, rarely seeing any beauty or inspiration in them. I kept being surprised at how, after long sequences of detailed observances of the dirty and seamy side of life, that Eugene was still only a young teenager. It that bothered me was the poor opinion Eugene and most of his family seemed to have of each other. There were indeed difficult times when they managed to overcome their differences for a while and support each other, but mostly they didn’t like each other. In the end, I am glad that I finally read this book but it isn’t one I enjoyed the plot. The joy on reading it was in the writing and the beautiful descriptions.

Received in the mail over the weekend. Thanks, booklady331. It is now on Mt. TBR!