Cheap Genius (Book) (Theodore Dreiser) Price

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Customer Reviews of Genius

Semi-autobiographical Dreiser Novel
I sought this novel to supplement the memoirs "Dawn" and "Newspaper Days" as a way to gain additional insight into Theodore Dreiser's intriguing personality. I was not disappointed. The book provides information about Dreiser's sexual appetite, motivations, and philosophy. It also is an engaging read in the way that "Sister Carrie" and "Jennie Gerhart" are. Sure, Dreiser can go on in detail in ways that an editor could have made more succinct, and his sentence structure could become byzantine or odd. But the plot is well structured and the sense of impending doom that crops up is mercifully relented so that the novel does not become as squirm-inducing as "An Amercian Tragedy." The reader's sympathy is evenly divided among the principles and the events are seen as fate intertwining with the forces and choices of the personalities. Dreiser even more than Sinclair Lewis is my favorite depictor of U.S. life early in the 20th century.

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Fighting Against the Fascist Strictures of Society !
Dreiser is the second author recommended by H.L. Mencken I have discovered. In Carl Bode's Mencken biography, he describes the libertarian critic's affinity for authors of the same ilk. "The Genius" describes an individualist who exists like many of us creative types, sometimes successful but unwilling to leave our wonderful, interesting existence. Much like Axel Heyst in Joseph Conrad's "Victory," the artist in "The Genius" is a great guy, a wonderful, creative guy. But as happens to the Greek heros their hubris leads to the inevitable downfall. You feel sorry for the main characters in both novels, but you feel fulfilled by them as well, just as free-thinking souls become better humans after reading Mencken...