When She Was Good

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Summary: Philip Roth: One of America's greatest contemporary writers
Review: and also one of America's greatest contemporary misogynists.

Lucy Nelson (the protagonist in "WSWG") is my kind of gal. She tells it like it is.

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Summary: Roth without Jews? Oy vay!
Review: I have read nearly all of Philip Roth's works over the last four months, and this very early work is the only book of his that I didn't like at all. There are NO JEWS in the whole book, and Newark is a thousand miles away! Phil, don't be a shmegeggy, come back to the neighborhood! In "The Facts, a Novelist's Autobiography", Roth reveals that Lucy is modeled after his psychotic first wife, who is much more interestingly rendered in "My Life as a Man". For the best of Roth, try "American Pastoral", "Portnoy's Complaint", any of the Zuckerman series, "Operation Shylock", or "The Counterlife". Just a humble opinion from a Roth Fanatic.

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Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Just finished reading it... While I have doubts about the (invisible) transformation Lucy experiences at the very end of the book, this is still one of the better written tragedies of the last few decades. Lucy Nelson/Bassart is horribly, fascinatingly real, convincing on almost every page, and Roth's usual unflinching approach to the thoughts of his characters was first demonstrated here, in his third book.

There isn't much of the stylistic flare here that we see in Roth's later books, but it's well-written and compulsive reading, as Lucy is such a compelling character, in spite of the reader learning early on what ultimately became of her. As the last reviewer noted, she is an unusually vibrant, real character, and if I detect a note of mysoginism from Roth in her, it's not too difficult to forgive.

This really is an unusual book; its flaws of predictability and melodrama are overshadowed by its strengths.

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Summary: Effects Of An Alcoholic Father
Review: The beginning of the book is very slow moving and at times confusing. It does progress into a more enjoyable read. The ending is an astounding and sad.

Lucy seems only strong when confronting her parents. The effects of her alcoholic and abusive father can be seen in her younger life and her marriage. What he suggests she does to take care of one of her problems during college only shows how an alcoholic never has the means for the important things in life but always has the means for their booze.

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Summary: An excellent read
Review: There are few pleasures comparable to reading good prose. Sharply defined characters are to be expected of any writer worthy of publication; similarly, a good plot is rudimentary to decent storytelling. The fact that these nuts-and-bolts components of fiction are singled out for praise in contemporary fiction is an indication of the alarmingly sharp decline of basic literacy over the past 40 years. Good prose, on the other hand, is the result of talent. The prose of When She Was Good is a delight, and well worth enduring the novel's at times heavy-handed critique of Midwestern religiosity and morality in general.

The novel, an odd combination of satire and naturalism, follows three generations of the Nelson family, whose Scandanavian roots are apparently responsible for the ferociously puritanical streak in the work's tragic main character, young Lucy. Roth's insistence on making Lucy a symbol of "putritan America" leads to an unfortunately hyperbolic ending in what is otherwise a carefully constrained character study of an ordinary family dealing with alcoholism. Having attained the enlightenment of adolescence, Lucy decides to deal with her father's drinking harshly and unforgivingly, setting in motion a series of catastrophes that include her own forced marriage to an endearingly naive and well-intentioned young man -- by far the book's most sympathetic character -- Roy Bassart.

This is excellent story-telling, sharp and clear and vivid. Not every reader will share Roth's point of view or his characterizations, but my, what talent.

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Summary: Heartbreaking
Review: This book broke my heart.
I actually cried at the end.
Lucy is so easy to identify with,I felt her pain and frustration.
What an ending!
Definitly worth a read.]
a little slow at first, but definitly worth it.

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Summary: My least favorite Roth...
Review: This isn't an awful novel, by any stretch, but I've given it a mere 2 stars because Roth's other works are so much better. He was still developing his craft, when this was written, and doesn't know his subject terribly well. Instead of reading this, I recommend The Human Stain, American Pastoral, Prague Orgy, The Counterlife, The Breast, The Professor of Desire, or Zuckerman Unbound.

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Summary: An amazing thorny little book
Review: When I first finished When She Was Good, it didn't feel finished. I had to spend a long time chewing over the character of Lucy and Roth's approach to her and her world. I felt angry that he blamed her for the destruction around her, but then it seemed like his attitude was much more complicated than blame. It seems like an essay on the nature of morality in constrained circumstances and the cost of high standards when you don't have a lot of choices. It may really be 4.5 stars instead of 5, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt in return for really making me think.

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Summary: Slow to get my interest, but the ending made up for it.
Review: When I started reading this, I almost gave up on it. It seemed a little slow and fairly dull. But once I got into the book, it started to get more interesting, perhaps I just missed the subtlety at the beginning. I absoultely loved the evolution of the main charater, and how she tried to maintain control, even as things were falling apart. The irony of it was so bitter, and the ending was tragic. When I closed the book I felt emotionally drained.

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Summary: Mean spirited
Review: Woman-hating man writes novel about man-hating woman.