The Way of All Flesh: Library Edition

Rating:
Summary: HONEST FUNNY AND SHALLOW
Review: The honesty is great. He nails the depiction of a dysfunctional Christian family, and its warping effect on the protagonist.

But the resolution is shallow. It all adds up to, "Life gave me the shaft, so I threw out the baby with the bathwater."

If you want a modern take on the same story, check out Craig Thompson's "Blankets." It reads a lot faster, and says pretty much the same thing. Family dysfunction, perversion and warped sexuality, lost faith.

Rating:
Summary: What was the Modern Library thinking?
Review: The last page of this book was as tediously painful to read as the first. Butler's pompous writing is by far a worse sin than any committed by his vapid characters.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Caused Quite a Stir When it was Published.
Review: This book did cause quite a stir when it was published. Samuel Butler wrote in a "no-holds-barred" style that attacked the Victorian era at its core. He shows the family as a tormented assembly bound together by illusion and make-believe, or even by hatred, fear and hypocrisy. As shocking as this was at the time, Mr. Butler was actually revealing secrets from his own family. He doesn't stop at the family. He put holes in the marital institution, the Church and at educational facilities. I know this sounds like a toxic book, but it is really not. Only true genius can write a book like this one. It is a book where the author's temperament comes shining through its pages. If nothing else, it's an honest a picture that you'll get anywhere of Victorian life.

Rating:
Summary: slow going, but worth plowing through
Review: This book tells the story of three generations of men in the Pontifex family. Theobold is unable to resist the domination of his father and acquiesces to following the ministry, as his father desires. Theobold's son Ernest, the novel's main character, is not exceptionally bright, motivated or gifted. Yet he succeeds in throwing off the religious and moral mantle he inherited. By doing so, he rejects the values of the age.

This book is most interesting read in it's historical context. The discursions and lengthy sentences make it a slow read. But if you are in the mood for a classic, this one is enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: An indictment of Victorian society and Christianity
Review: This is a book written ostensibly by a godfather, chronicling the family history and the unusual life of Earnest Pontifex, the only son of a very upright and religiously correct Christian minister. It is reportedly an almost autobiographical account of the author's own life and reflects his own lifetime revelations with regard to society, religion and morality. It goes extensively into the lives of his parents and their parents, allowing the reader to fully appreciate the inevitable life into which Ernest is born. The Way Of All Flesh explores the difficult struggles of a naiive young man coming to terms with his parents' and society's expectations of him while he endeavors to find his place in the world. His life begins as an avalanche of yesteryear--Victorian and Christian values are laid out, explored, tried, tested, examined and rejected as Earnest muddles his way to true happiness and a life worth living. If it were published during Samuel Butler's life, it would surely have resulted in some kind of social or legal censure as a shocking indictment of the establishment of the day. In many respects, it is still as revealing, shocking and valid as it was when it was written.