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Very little participation, but can be expected this time of year. Hopefully some of you are reading along but quietly. We plow ahead!

Discussion thread for Part 3, Chapters 26-34, the conclusion of An American Tragedy.

We are in the home stretch! I really enjoyed the book!

Erika wrote: "We are in the home stretch! I really enjoyed the book!"

I really have as well. Very curious to see how Dreiser wraps this up.

Well...this part dragged for me...thoughts?

I'm through C29, so I don't yet know the resolution, but all the OH MY! DID HE OR DIDN'T HE! MUSTN'T LOSE FAITH!' stuff has been tiresome, and it's far from over is my guess. Still looking forward to wrapping it up, but if he doesn't get acquitted on appeal, Dreiser should have fried him after C26.

Who is done and what are your thoughts???

I'm nearing the end of C33. Good call on the dragging. I had been planning to go back to the end of Part 2 to revisit the scene of Roberta's death, but no need... he goes through every bit of it in his head in these last chapters, which are torturously difficult to read. I find myself skimming all the prayer. Still glad we read it: an American Crime & Punishment.

Did you know it's been made into a play (1926) and two films (1931 and 1951)?

I just DVRed "A Place in the Sun". Was waiting until I was done! I skimmed the last several chapters. Just couldn't.

Erika wrote: "I just DVRed "A Place in the Sun". Was waiting until I was done! I skimmed the last several chapters. Just couldn't."

I mostly skimmed as well, only slowing down for interactive scenes not involving prayer or wandering thought. Glad we read it, but it should have been half the length that it was. I read Crime & Punishment some 30 years ago, and would welcome reading it again in the wake of this. I remember enjoying it more, it being somewhat more concise. This one comes across as very preachy, or at the very least non-secular.

I enjoyed the parts which showed us Clyde's life and motivations, how he dealt with situations and how his story unfolded up to and including his crime and capture. Everything after that felt much, much longer than it needed to be. Hemingway would have hated Dreiser's writing.

It looks like only a few of us finished, but any closing thoughts besides my own above?

I finished way early. I found the criminal law practice and procedure both interesting and aggravating. I had to do some historical research on the changes in criminal law and police practice. In my opinion, Dreiser dragged out the internal conflict and self justification of Clyde in order to gain sympathy for his main character. It didn’t work; it only made me despise him more. Yet it also shone clear light on unjust police and investigator practices of the time. A mistrial would have been declared today, for sure! I think the story also highlights the inhumanity of the death penalty. Justice would have been better served by a lifetime of imprisonment and hard labor. As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness when there is true contrition and penance. In Clyde’s case, it may have come to him after years, who knows? I wasn’t convinced that he truly acknowledged his sins, felt sorrow for the harm caused to so many people through his own fault, nor did he seem capable of full repentance and intent to reform his life and make amends. He only seems sorry for himself. God will be the judge eventually; it’s not for man to take a life.

Jerilyn wrote: "I finished way early. I found the criminal law practice and procedure both interesting and aggravating. I had to do some historical research on the changes in criminal law and police practice. In m..."

I love your thoughts on this! 'Interesting and aggravating' is a perfect summation of the trial chapters for me. I also agree with you that Clyde never shows true contrition. He only decides to [mostly] confess to his minister once he accepts that God may judge him more harshly if he doesn't. That is not contrition! Nor is it acceptance of responsibility!

Also agree that was a mistrial from the very start.

I did enjoy reading this, but I also think it would have been twice as good had it been half as long.

Finished it years later, with a little Help from youtube. Glad I made it, but the Group seems dead. AAT and Don Quixote seemed to be too much.

Armin wrote: "Finished it years later, with a little Help from youtube. Glad I made it, but the Group seems dead. AAT and Don Quixote seemed to be too much."

An American Tragedy indeed...