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Matters Of Honor (2007)

Matters of Honor (2007)

Book Info

Author
Genre
Rating
3.32 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0307265250 (ISBN13: 9780307265258)
Language
English
Publisher
alfred a. knopf

About book Matters Of Honor (2007)

Most of the story is set in Harvard, but it’s less about college life than it is about the search of identity and life-long friendship. Early in the 1950s the three protagonists first meet when they move into the same suite of the college dormitory. Sam Standish – the narrator – is the son of an old New England family who hasn’t yet come to terms with the rather recent discovery that he had been adopted as a baby by his parents who belong to an impoverished branch of the Standishes and who are so miserable about it that they took to drinking. As time progresses he becomes a renowned writer. Archibald P. Palmer, short Archie, is from a Texan army family that never stayed in the same place for long. From the beginning he is the socialite of the friends, someone who enjoys taking risks and hard drinks. The third of the party is Henry White, born Henryk Weiss, a Polish Jew from Krakow who survived the war by hiding and who came to the USA with both his parents in 1947. He strives for acceptance and tries to shake off his Jewish heritage. Anti-Semitism is strong in the USA at the time. Eventually Henry becomes a lawyer in the Paris subsidiary of a big New Yorker law firm, but then...Discover yourself!See also my blogpost at:http://edith-lagraziana.blogspot.com/...

it`s slowly, wonderful and it spells

Do You like book Matters Of Honor (2007)?

Louis Begley writes, sometimes –many times—about the same things: upper class Americans in moral situations. He does so again in Matters of Honor. Here we follow five people from Harvard (and Radcliffe) from the late forties to some kind of end for three of them. Along the way he writes probably the most interesting novel ever created about property law. Throw in some holocaust material, some coming of age sex in the ‘fifties, and a scintillating international scene and you have quite a book. In fact you have both too much and not enough. Begley sometimes gets bogged down in plot lines that seem endless. And then, the conclusion, if not quite a “I have a letter,” is not much better. We have invested too much attention to be thrust away with a “I found him and he was happy.”What I liked most about the book is the almost invisible narrator. He is a participant, but we know almost nothing of him. In fact, he knows little of himself except he is an orphan and has turned into a fine writer. I hope these are both positives, but I am not sure. I have read all of Begley, and he continues the J.P. Marquand tradition quite admirably.
—William Koon

This book follows three young men who are college roommates at Harvard during the early 1950s. One is from an old New England family, but has conflict with his parents. Another is a Jewish refugee from Poland, trying to fit in to a largely gentile society at Harvard. The third is from a military family, and has traveled around throughout his life.The characters were interesting and well-written, and the book provided interesting insight into the world of upper-class New England in the 1950s. It also gave me a sense of how much things have changed over the years.My only complaint was that I felt the second half of the story, which followed the three characters after they left Harvard, was somewhat rushed; trying to cover too much material in too few pages.
—Diane

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