First post and it's already the middle of February, oh well... .
My aim, as in previous years, is to complete 20 books this year, which at the moment seems impossible but... you never know! I've already finished 2!
1/20? Dreiser, Theodore (1900); Pizer, Donald, Editor. Sister Carrie: an authoritative text backgrounds and sources criticism. Second edition c1991. New York: WW Norton & Company (0393960420) Finished January 2022.
I feel like this is a bit of a cheat. I started it last year but didn't get round to finishing until January this year. Also I didn't read the copious notes, contemporary reviews and essays that accompany the text. Anyway, really enjoyed this book of two halves. The Second half (when they get to New York) is much faster paced than the first and I can see why some might dislike Dreiser's 'naturalism' (often it feels more like a geography or history lesson rather than a novel) but I'm a sucker for 'detail'. Also, I liked the end, none of the three main characters appear to learn anything and one kills themself!
2/20? Dalrymple, Theodore. Life at the bottom: the worldview that makes the underclass. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, c2001 (1566635055) Finished February 2022.
Perhaps a contentious choice on U75? Despite him working and writing about the city, and area, I live in I'd never heard of him before a friend mentioned him in passing recently. I'm not sure these collected articles are a good place to start with him, as there's loads of repetition and he never bothers with references to support his claims. He writes engagingly but it's not clear at all, at least to me, what he wants or how he thinks change will be achieved.
