caracolina

“The Store” is a very interesting book because it deals with the Reconstruction period after the Civil war, a time I don’t know much about. It seems as if all too often in documentaries, the story ends as slaves are freed and the assumption is that “they lived happily ever after.” But of course, reality […]

Read the rest of The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling, Pulitzer Winner of 1933

“Years of Grace” ended up being a tedious read. It is a fairly heavy book and started rather unremarkably. Teenage Jane Ward is the youngest daughter of a middle class family. She falls in love with Andre, a French boy whose family is somewhat bohemian (for the time) – the 1890s, but her parents unsurprisingly […]

Read the rest of Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes, Pulitzer Winner of 1931

“Laughing Boy” by Oliver La Farge is another book that gives the reader a glimpse into the life of an ethnic minority – Navajo Indians. This story takes place in 1915. Laughing Boy is a young, traditional Navajo who falls in love with a Navajo girl called Slim Girl. He marries her although she is […]

Read the rest of Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge, Pulitzer Winner of 1930

Scarlet Sister Mary is the first Pulitzer winning novel that was not written from a white person’s perspective. Every character in this story is black. White folks are mentioned on occasion in a vague sense but we never meet them. The story unfolds in the South after the Civil War, so people are no longer […]

Read the rest of Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin, Pulitzer Prize Winner of 1929

“Arrowsmith” brings us the life and times of Martin Arrowsmith: from boyhood to College and Medical School, then marriage, and various attempts at finding a good position and making a career. Which makes this a long book. Too long for me. There are so many chapters in Martin’s life and each one is written in […]

Read the rest of Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, intended Pulitzer Winner of 1926 (declined)

“The Bridge of San Luis Rey” was a book I enjoyed a lot. It was refreshingly different from the books I read so far. The first part of the book takes the reader to Peru in 1714. A bridge collapses and kills the five people that happened to cross it at that moment. A monk, […]

Read the rest of The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder, Pulitzer Winner of 1928

When I started reading “Early Autumn” my first thought was “‘Age of Innocence’ all over again!’ There are too many similarities. Upper class family – check! Female Cousin returns from overseas after dissolution of marriage – check! Said cousin is considered immoral by conservative family members – check! Love triangle – check! But I read […]

Read the rest of Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield, Pulitzer Winner of 1927

“So Big” was another sojourn into farming life, but this time with none of the nostalgia. After the death of her beloved father in 1888, Selina Peake, an educated but poor 19-year-old woman from the Chicago area, is an orphan with no prospects. To make ends meet she takes the school teacher position in High […]

Read the rest of So Big by Edna Ferber, Pulitzer Winner of 1925

The Able Mclaughlins is a story about several families of devoutly religious Scottish immigrants on the lonely Iowa prairie just after the civil war. Young Wully McLaughlin returns from the war ready to marry his sweetheart Chirstie McNair when he finds out that she has been “shamed” by Wully’s cousin Peter. In other words, she […]

Read the rest of The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson, Pulitzer Winner of 1924

One of Ours was an interesting step into the mind of a Nebraska country boy. Claude Wheeler grows up on a successful farm near Frankfort in the beginning of the 20th century and attends college in a larger town. Claude likes working on the farm but does not see himself as belonging there for the […]

Read the rest of One of Ours by Willa Cather – Pulitzer Winner of 1923