Really probably 3.5

This is a book that delves deep into the life of Wolfe, encompassing not only himself but also his family and the town he grew up in. For reasons that are surely a complex interplay of nature and nurture, the result was a very isolated child and young man. Wolfe (portrayed as Eugene in the novel) feels a profound sense of aloneness, as expressed in his words: "How I have cut my brain open for you to see, and would my heart, if I had dared, and how alone I am, and always have been." His family members, with their各自的 worldly experiences, rage around him. Wolfe is not sympathetic to them, yet craves their sympathy in return. He either feels he doesn't receive enough of it or is unable to recognize it. As a result, at the end of adolescence, he decides to break free and leave, uttering the words: "Ah,... you were not looking, were you? I've gone."

To be sure, there is much to be gleaned from this book, and there are significant insights into the process of growing up. However, for a mature reader, the author comes across as overly self-involved and lacking in sympathy. Moreover, the racial divide that Wolfe experiences in early 20th-century Asheville is simply unacceptable. Unlike some of his fellow southerners such as Percy and Faulkner, Wolfe doesn't even spare a moment to consider that the blacks living in "Niggertown" are human beings. This lack of humanity pervades his interactions with the entire world, giving the impression that he can only see as far as his own pain, or perhaps he sees the pain of others but doesn't consider it as worthy as his own.

Despite these flaws, there are some truly excellent passages of writing. For example: "their weird absorption with the death of some toothless hag who....at length found release after her eightieth year, while fire, famine and slaughter in other parts of the world passed unnoticed by them." Or: "She did not know that every boy, caged in from confession by his fear, is to himself a monster." And: "But they were awed and made quiet by the vast riddle of pain and confusion that scarred their lives." And: "We call meanness nobility and hatred honor. The way to make yourself a hero is to make me out a scoundrel." There are many more such gems. That being said, I had to skim probably 35% of the book due to unnecessary repetition. (Thanks to Max Perkins for making it somewhat more tolerable.)

So, I've taken on Thomas Wolfe.

This is a really difficult one for me to rate, not to mention review. It stands apart from many other books and authors that I've read.

Stream-of-consciousness. I often hear this term being bandied about, being applied to everyone from Faulkner and Joyce, to Fitzgerald and Palahniuk. If that's the case, then each of them surely has their own unique style within that particular style.

This book was extremely "dramatic." The dialogue and the actions of the characters bordered on being melodramatic. There was a lot of shrieking and clutching at one's throat. And to be honest, there were times when I got mired in minutiae or what seemed like superfluous details. I would feel my attention starting to flag when suddenly - BOOM - Wolfe would insert this amazing line or thought or paragraph that would completely floor me. And I would go back and read it again and again.

So, in conclusion: There are precious gems in here that are worth wading through the 500+ pages for. Enough to make me eager to pick up the sequel to this story. Because Eugene Gant is one of the most tormented souls I've encountered in prose recently.

On a more lighthearted note: It's a great book to incorporate into a drinking game. If you take a shot every time Eliza purses her lips, you'll be wasted before page 30... and probably dead from severe alcohol poisoning by the time you finish.

Closing a book with a sigh and hugging it while saying goodbye is the best thing that can happen to me as a reader.

And the worst thing is trying to put into words the feelings and emotions it has provoked because nothing I say will do it justice.

What we find here, written masterfully, is the story of deep America in the early 20th century.

It is the story of Altamont, its neighbors, and its customs.

It is the story of the Gant family, the parents Oliver and Eliza, and their children Daisy, Steve, Helen, Ben, Luke, and Eugene.

It is the story of Eugene from his birth until he is 19 years old.

But above all, it is an exploration into the souls of all of them, into their personal and family relationships, and into their personal and emotional evolution.

The father, Oliver, apathetic, promiscuous alcoholic, and victim.

The mother, Eliza, who cares little for her children and much for money, as ambitious as she is stingy, hoarding properties and living badly without enjoying what she has. Both will mark the lives of their children. Steve, rebellious, wasteful, and shameless. Helen, sensitive and selfless, with a strong connection to her father. Luke, stuttering, sociable, and very shrewd. Ben, reserved, and who only wants Eugene not to live the life they have lived, without the love of their parents and enduring the constant selfishness of both.

Among all this variety of personalities, Eugene grows up, the only one who can study and who will see in study the way to escape from that social and family oppression and find a meaning to existence.

A fascinating book about life and about death. And about how both mark the family and the family marks the individual. About ambition and alcoholism. About freedom and loneliness. About family relationships and the consequences of an unhappy childhood. A book about the search for the meaning of life.

A book that I have found spectacular for the story and for how it is told. Don't expect great twists because there aren't any. What there is is truth, a fascinating story, and an impressive writer.

A favorite, a must-read and cherish.

'Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?' This profound question haunts the pages of Wolfe's work. He understood that men are forever strangers to one another, that no one truly comes to know another. Caught in the insoluble prison of being, we can never escape, no matter what embraces, kisses, or warmth we receive. Never, never, never.

Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel, originally titled O lost, is a novel about wandering, seeking, and searching for meaning. It is an excellent bildungsroman and an honest portrayal of feeling out of place, even within one's own family home. The narrative is epic in scope and language, vividly bringing to life the story of Eugene and his oddly loveable family.

Though grounded in reality, Wolfe's pages are filled with eccentrics who suck the marrow out of life. These characters, though odd and sometimes unlikable, are always human and relatable. Their life stories include first loves, losses, and the untimely transition into adulthood. The novel explores similar themes and family situations as many others, but with a unique bravado.

Nearing the end, Wolfe's words 'Which of us is the ghost I wonder?' left the reader thinking about their role in this journey and the narrative residue of this encounter. Recommended reading, despite the language that may shock some and the outdated town name for African-Americans.

'His haunted face was possessed of that obscure and passionate hunger... His brain was sick with the million books, his eyes with the million pictures, his body sickened on a hundred princely wines.' Wolfe's descriptive language adds depth and vividness to the story.

A destiny that leads from the English to the Dutch is strange enough...

Oh, really? This book has definitely not aged well. He shows little sympathy for those who are so far outside the so-called "right people" that they are not of English stock. I would venture to guess that he thought being a Yankee was well-nigh unforgivable.

That being said, there is something truly haunting about Wolfe's prose. It often reads almost like a prose poem. "Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?" His words have a certain charm and power that draw the reader in and make them think deeply about the human condition.

Despite the flaws in his views, Wolfe's writing still has the ability to move and inspire. It makes us question our own prejudices and assumptions, and reminds us of the universal themes of loneliness, loss, and the search for meaning in life.

Perhaps we can learn from Wolfe's mistakes and strive to be more open-minded and accepting of those who are different from us. After all, in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse, it is more important than ever to embrace our differences and find common ground.

So, while this book may have its shortcomings, it still has something valuable to offer. It is a reminder that literature can be both a mirror and a window, reflecting our own flaws and showing us new perspectives on the world around us.

Thomas Wolfe's writing is filled with a powerful lifeforce.

His work is characterized by a gusto and relish for the vitality of language. The sentences are gloriously verbose, and the dialog of the characters has a sing-song quality that spills out onto the page.

He describes flavours, sounds, textures, and tones in delicious and vivid detail, making the reader feel as if they are experiencing the story firsthand.

The narrative moves along in an undulating rhythmic pace, much like the changing seasons in the story.

Overall, it is a beautiful joy of a book that captivates the reader from beginning to end.

O, spirit, lost and driven by the wind, come back again.

"Look Homeward, Angel" is the debut novel of Thomas Wolfe, published in 1929, which seems to contain many autobiographical aspects. Yet, in the note to the reader, he writes:

"If the writer has used the clay of life to make his book, he has used only that which everyone is compelled, which no one can prevent himself from using. Fiction is not fact."

Presumably, he wanted to cover the risk that someone might recognize themselves in one of the characters. However, those who take the trouble to examine his life story will undoubtedly realize that there are indeed many similarities. This is given extra attention in the afterword. Of course, this is not really important for the reading experience, so let me just let this fact go.

Thomas Clayton Wolfe (Asheville, North Carolina, October 3, 1900 - Baltimore, September 15, 1938) was an American writer. He is regarded as one of the most important writers of the interbellum.

Wolfe studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later at Harvard University. From 1924 to 1929, he also taught American literature there, but he gave it up to focus entirely on writing. Wolfe traveled to Europe several times, including to Berlin and Paris, and met prominent writers such as Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. He died in 1938 of pneumonia, ultimately diagnosed as tuberculosis.

From the very first chapter of this coming-of-age novel, you are immersed in a lush, baroque writing style, partly due to the use of an abundance of adjectives. Slow reading seems to be the magic word for an intense reading experience. Getting to know the characters, beautiful sentences pass by, blasphemous tirades, and lifelike descriptions of nature.

The text is interspersed with intertextuality, such as literary works, poetry, songs, Biblical and epic quotes, historical facts, and the like.

Eugene Gant grows up in a Presbyterian family in Altamont, North Carolina. We follow him chronologically until the age of nineteen.

The chapters before Eugene's birth are dedicated, in particular, to his father, Oliver Gant. At a young age, Gant walks past a stonecutting shop and is instantly fascinated by the gravestones with images of cherubim and "an angel who balanced with a smile full of soft stone idiocy on cold feet. [...] He felt that it was his deepest heart's desire to learn to make fine sculpture with a chisel. He wanted something dark and ineffable in his innermost marrow to be carved on cold natural stone. He wanted to carve an angel's head."

And so he becomes a stonecutter's apprentice and later runs his own business, which he soon - "Lord have mercy!" - "lets go to the Philistines." Sadly, his wife dies a year and a half after they get married, causing Gant to fall back into his old habit: drinking. His way of life takes a toll on his health.

Then he meets Eliza - who is always pursing her lips - and marries her. Gant has a rather theatrical personality (disorder?), is also full of self-pity and hypochondria. He regularly uses blasphemous expressions. At the slightest provocation, he falls into excessive drunkenness and maniacal outbursts of rage. His love for copious meals and the preservation of all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and meats is fantastically described. The color and shape of each kind are always described. You feel almost bewitched by all the words, and the smells and tastes seem to leap off the pages.

Unfortunately, the spouses are unable to create a warm nest for their brood, of which Eugene, born in 1900, is the youngest. In particular, they seem to be concerned with themselves. A separation of table and bed follows, and the enterprising Eugene spends his childhood with his mother, who starts running the Dixieland boarding house and invests in real estate. Because he feels alienated, he spends a lot of time with his father and sister Helen. Cautious are his steps on the path of love, and terrifying are his visits to "the ladies."

He develops a love for literature and, at the age of thirteen, as the only offspring of the family, gets the chance to study at a private school until he leaves to study in Pulpit Hill and later at Harvard.

"Eugene's first year at the university was one of loneliness, pain, and failure. He had been enrolled for less than three weeks when he had already become the victim of half a dozen classic jokes: his ignorance of campus traditions had been fully exploited, and his reputation for gullibility had been established. He was the greenest of the green in the present and the past."

Despite making some friends, he gets caught up in isolation. He manages to earn some money by taking on various odd jobs, but his fascination with an older girlfriend makes him go流浪hungry and dirty.

"He was like a man who had found death and been resurrected. All that had gone before lived in a world of shadows. He thought of his family, of Ben, of Laura James, as if they were shadows. The world itself took on a shadowy quality. He was a witness to its death throes throughout that August month, as the war approached its end. Nothing seemed hard and warm and raw and new anymore. Everything was old. Everything was dying. An all-encompassing ethereal music rang in his ears, from an unchangingly vague distance, like the language of his forgotten world. He had known birth pangs. He had known sorrow and love. He had known hunger. He had almost known death."

Concluding with a particularly surreal chapter, Wolfe has given this phenomenal reading experience an extra dimension.

Wolfe's writing style is bombastic, voluminous - in some passages almost Joyceian - with a lush abundance of adjectives and lists. These latter enhance the message and make it a detailed and sensual reading experience. The fact that the writing style is sometimes a bit over the top did not bother me at all; you can enjoy going along with the long and meandering sentences.

A very extensive footnote apparatus clarifies the many references in the text, and the extensive afterword is of a deepening value.

Initially, Wolfe chose the title "O lost" for this book. Sjaak Commandeur translated it as "te loor" (lost). This expression can also be read regularly in the book and is one of the many motifs that the author has incorporated into the text. The characters are magnificently endowed with their own characterization, through sayings and habits. For example, look at the typing of the characters and the recurring month of October.

This title also appears on Schwob's list.

Sadly, I truly don't understand what the big fuss is all about regarding this novel.

It is incredibly boring, moving at a sluggish pace and seems to lack any real purpose. It just drones on and on and on, and I constantly find myself asking, 'What is the point?'

I keep patiently waiting to be amazed, but instead, I end up wishing that I had never embarked on this reading journey in the first place.

Quite frankly, I firmly believe that Wolfe is highly overrated. He is nowhere near the caliber of a Hemingway or a Faulkner.

The entire novel appears to be just a jumble of nothingness, really. There is absolutely no substance to the so-called "story" at all.

In a sense, he reminds me of Stephenie Meyer. She also can't write very well and takes an eternity to get to the point.

I have finally finished it, and yet I'm still not certain what the "story" was actually about.

It just seemed like this chaotic and rambling mess without a proper plot.

The only thing that I know for sure is that the entire Gant family was completely crazy. That's about the only thing that I managed to glean from Look Homeward, Angel.

Look Homeward, Angel is without a doubt one of the most exquisitely beautiful and deeply touching books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It firmly ranks among my Top Ten favorite books of all time. Thomas Wolfe is a true virtuoso of imagery and description, and this book rightfully earns its place on any shelf dedicated to genuine American literature classics.

I simply cannot fathom why some people find this book a challenge to get through. For me, it was an absolute page-turner, and I devoured it in just a week.

His writing style is indeed rambling, and Wolfe does frequently veer off on numerous tangents (or as he would describe it, 'divagations' - incidentally, one of the many new words I gleaned from this book!). However, he always manages to bring the plot back on track. As some astute reviewers have pointed out, in today's age of television and the internet, modern readers may struggle to appreciate such long, meandering novels. Over the past 50 - 60 years, our attention spans have become increasingly shorter. With the vast ocean of information available at our fingertips, we now crave concise, engaging, and perhaps even entertaining content. Just like taking public transport or opting for a Calorie Mate for a meal, we have all become efficiency fanatics, leaving little time to relax in a comfortable old leather armchair and read a thick volume by Thomas Wolfe. Consequently, I know many people, including friends, who lack the patience to endure reading a 500+ page novel.

Some people complain that the book lacks a plot. But really, plot, plot, plot - it seems that's the only reason some people read books these days. What ever happened to the old-fashioned pleasure of losing oneself in the beauty of the language (like when reading Shakespeare) or a novel that truly makes you reflect on life and people (take Melville's The Confidence Man, for example)?

Let me assure you, dear reader, that the quality of the writing in this book is absolutely top-notch - it's superb! Some passages are truly breathtaking. Yes, Thomas Wolfe sometimes comes across as a pretentious writer. And yes, the main character, Eugene Gant, can at times seem painfully smug, annoying, and downright bratty. But if we're being honest, didn't we all go through a similar phase at some point in our lives? If you think you somehow 'escaped' this phase or'stepped around' it, then you're only deceiving yourself.

This is a remarkable coming-of-age novel in which Wolfe, through a thinly veiled fictionalized account of his own upbringing, vividly recalls the trials and tribulations of growing up. The descriptions of Asheville, where Wolfe grew up, his family home, Dixieland, and his many adventures in various places across the countryside are a sheer delight to read. Wolfe's words possess a certain power that transports you right into the heart of the action. I felt as if I could have been standing right beside him.

Like most people who read this book, my favorite character was Ben. I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read it yet, but I will say that I felt sorry for how he was overlooked by the others. (The'silent fight through life of the silent one of the family' - I suspect he was only'silent' because none of his self-centered family, with the possible exception of Eugene, bothered to take the time to understand him!) The last 100 pages of the book were so powerful that they brought tears to my eyes. However, my absolute favorite part of the book (which I re-read about five times) was when Eugene lashed out at Ben after pining for his first love (who turned out to be a young harlot engaged to someone else and left poor Eugene in the lurch), and Ben told him to forget her and 'to hell with all of them' anyway. I'm sure many of us can relate to similar moments in our own lives, such as our first painful break-up, our first heartbreak, or other times when we've been angry with family, friends, or when the world has left us feeling cold.

What I particularly adored about this book is how it illustrates how we set out in life young, innocent, and eager to explore, only to become increasingly disappointed when it doesn't unfold as we had anticipated. This is exactly what happens to Eugene as he realizes that the real world is vastly different from the utopian and fantastical images he had in his mind from all the books he read in his youth. Also, sometimes life offers no solutions to our problems. Life is an eternal mystery, and we come to discover this as we grow older. Why are we here? Where do we come from? What does it all mean? Who were we at that particular moment in our lives? And the recurring Wolfean answer is, "O lost!". The answers are blowing in the wind. We all entered this world in exile and are all lost, stumbling around in the dark, seeking answers. These are the main underlying themes of the book.

Apart from Ben, I found most of the other characters in the book to be rather dreadful. The father is a pathetic drunk for the most part. The mother is a stingy woman who seems more concerned with saving money and dabbling in the local real estate market than with her actual family. Luke is okay but doesn't receive much attention in the book. Helen is the fiery daughter (there's always one in every family), and despite her courage and strength, I found her just as annoying as the father she idolizes, inheriting the same flaws. As I've already mentioned, Eugene, the protagonist, based on Wolfe himself, is a spoilt, bratty young fool. But through the changes and turmoil he experiences, we somehow end up sympathizing with him anyway, as some part of our own youth is reawakened and we remember the bumpy, joyous, confusing, and terrifying journey that it sometimes was.

I should have read this book when I was much younger, before I ventured out into the world myself. It might have taught me a few things before I had to learn the hard way, like Eugene. But, alas, I suppose the beautiful innocence within all of us must inevitably fade away, and that is one of the many things that are 'lost'.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. They simply don't make writers like Wolfe anymore. Fans of Kerouac (like myself) and Phillip Roth will likely also relish this book by Wolfe, who was idolized by both of these renowned authors. Without Wolfe, there would have been no The Town and the City (Kerouac) or American Pastoral (Roth). Five Stars!!!

Eugene was almost twelve years old. His childhood was behind him. As spring advanced, he felt, for the first time, all the delight of solitude. Wrapped in his fine nightgown, he stood in the darkness behind the window that overlooked the garden in the back room of Gant's house, breathing in the sweet air, exulting in his isolation in the shadow, listening to the strange moan of the train whistle heading west.

\\"-Come on, it's not time to daydream. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. It's time we went out on the street.\\"

Even though her allusion to daydreaming was only part of the axiomatic mosaic of her language, Eugene was startled and felt confused, thinking that his secret world, so jealously guarded, had been revealed and made ridiculous.

So we are faced with what is one of the great American novels, praised by William Faulkner himself, who considered Thomas Wolfe the most important American author of his generation. The novel is set in a rural home in North Carolina, and in it, Thomas Wolfe immerses us in the life of the youngest son of the Gants, Eugene, who from a young age feels a bit out of place in a conflicted family with constantly quarreling parents and siblings who could have been his role models but aren't because he longs for something else. Eugene stands out because he will be the first in his family to devote too much attention to books and, almost against the wishes of his parents, manages to study and finally go to university.

\\"Besides, each year he secluded himself more in his secret life. Something strange and wild blossomed darkly on his face, and when she spoke to him, his eyes filled with shadows, of great ships and cities.\\"

The truth is that what has fascinated me the most is how Wolfe involves us in the life of this family, the Gants, strange and detached and yet, very real and earthly. Thomas Wolfe's style is very elaborate in the sense that he pays a lot of attention to details, with very lyrical moments, so much so that there are sentences that seem like small poetic pieces. This style is interwoven with moments of great humor and, in others, however, existential angst reigns supreme, stylistic turns and layers that are gradually revealed and are surprising to the reader. On the other hand, that semi-autobiographical character is also noticeable in many moments that could not have been written unless the author had lived them, something that the reader firmly feels as the reading progresses, moments related to the father's alcoholism, with Eugene's first love or even almost at the end when Eugene has his first encounter with death. These moments are completely priceless, very universal, and are related by Thomas Wolfe close to the skin. The life in the town of Altamont and the characters that intersect in Dixieland, the mother's boarding house, turn this novel sometimes into a kind of collection of short stories that are wonderful because they are characters that will remain in the memory. Eliza, Helen, Gant, Ben... characters that have deeply touched me.

\\"The months that followed will be briefly summarized, hardly mentioning the men and the actions that the lost boy stumbled upon. They belong to a story of escape and wandering, and will serve here to indicate the initiation of the journey that his life will take. They are a prelude to exile, and in a chaos of nightmare, only the blind groping of a soul towards freedom and isolation should be seen.\\"

In conclusion, it could also be said that it is a novel in which you feel on every page Eugene Gant's desire to escape the claustrophobia of that closed town and, at the same time, to free himself from the emotional yoke of that conflicted family, family ties that are like an invisible chain. And the way Wolfe develops Eugene's personal growth, making him become an adult through several experiences that will mark him, turn this first work of Thomas Wolfe into a classic in every sense of the word. The translation is by Maritza Izquierdo.

\\"It was as if he had died and been reborn. Everything that had passed now lived in a fantastic world. He thought of his family, of Ben, of Laura James, as if they were ghosts. The very world had become a ghost.\\"

In 1970, Thomas Wolfe had a profound impact on me. His words seized my heart and gave a passionate voice to the angst that had overcome me the previous autumn. That voice refused to be silenced, and its echoes have resounded throughout my long life, even up to my late middle age.

As a child, I could never read in a moving vehicle. I was too restless for that. However, everything changed in the late sixties when I discovered great writing. Whether it was Dante or Baudelaire, polar opposites as they were, I would read whenever the opportunity arose. Despite the fast-moving vehicles filled with raucous conversation, I could immerse myself in the glorious world of the classics at a moment's notice.

In 1970, our family's travel destination was San Francisco, my mother's hometown. With a rented camper attached to the rear of our car, we set off. While browsing the wonderful antique bookstores there, this novel became my traveling companion. Needless to say, I finished it before our tired return to the provincial small town of Ontario. I was completely captivated by Wolfe's lyrical writing.

The voice that would not be stilled was, of course, Wolfe's theme - the impossible passionate longing for our past innocence. This is a difficult and emotional concept to grapple with. It is impenetrable because it is so filled with remembered pain. Letting go of our past is impossible for many of us.

The Renaissance-era Japanese Zen Master Hakuin calls it Enlightenment Sickness - we cling to the sacred cow of our sudden glimpse of the Beyond. But as T.S. Eliot so wisely said, "we had the experience but missed the meaning." When you reach the top of a hundred-foot flag pole, keep climbing! Don't, whatever you do, go back down. As Wolfe cried out in his next book, you can't go home again. You must keep climbing until the day you realize you invented the flag pole.

Yes, that's right. We were already Home Free. But we couldn't see it because we clung to the past like an old tattered flag. The past is now over. It's time for new beginnings in the vivid present tense that has always freed us from our prisons.

Likely the first and probably still the best portrait of a spectacularly dysfunctional American family by a stupendously gifted stylist, Thomas Wolfe. I imagine that readers fall into two distinct camps from which there are no defections. On one hand, there are those who find Wolfe's style too over-the-top and give up after just 50 pages. They are perhaps put off by his exuberant and flamboyant writing. On the other hand, there are those who find it appealingly over-the-top and want nothing more than to keep reading. These readers are captivated by Wolfe's unique voice and the vividness of his descriptions. They either begin rereading as soon as they reach the end or head straight for Of Time and the River. In fact, they would happily read anything Wolfe wrote, even manuals on swine husbandry, had he written any.

Mine would have been a lesser life had I not read Look Homeward, Angel. Even as an English graduate, I did not read him until I was 54 because I thought he would be gloomily Southern. However, I was mistaken. He is unlike the Southern writers of the 1920s and 1930s. He certainly doesn't belong to any school or group like the Fugitives or whatever they were called. He is by no means a Lost Generation'er. He stands alone, out there on his own. This is perhaps why he doesn't fit neatly into the syllabus. For that same era, there are so many short novels that wouldn't take weeks to read - Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein - and even Faulkner can be short by comparison.