Originally read in July 2012.The Turmoil was a novel that I liked moderately the first time I read it, but after mulling it over a good deal and reading it a second time, it has firmly ensconced itself as my second-favorite book by Booth Tarkington. Written first of what he would later group together and call his Growth trilogy, it is set chronologically after The Magnificent Ambersons, in what we're given to understand is the same nameless "midland city" (likely based on Tarkington's native city of Indianapolis), now in the full grip and roar of the industrial age. At the center of the novel is the Sheridan family, wealthy owners of a business empire worth millions. Its plot focuses around sensitive youngest son Bibbs Sheridan—the sickly one and the "odd one" of the family, who hates the noise and smoke and rush and greed of the city, and wants no part of his family's business. Family patriarch James Sheridan Sr., meanwhile, is exactly the opposite—a memorable, larger-than-life character, noisy and blunt and boisterous, who loves the noise and smoke and the continual battle to build bigger and own more as much as Bibbs hates it. Completely incapable of understanding Bibbs' feelings or his wish to be a writer instead, Sheridan is bent on molding his incomprehensible youngest into his own image, and oblivious to the cracks appearing in the foundation of his family. Next door to the Sheridans' new mansion live the Vertrees family, the remnants of one of the city's "old families," whom Sheridan's daughter Edith and daughter-in-law Sibyl are anxious to cultivate in order to "get in with the right people" in society, something the nouveau-riche Sheridans have yet to accomplish. Unbeknownst to them, the Vertreeses' fortunes have declined and they're now living on the very edge of poverty—their only hope is for daughter Mary to charm and marry Jim Sheridan, the oldest of the clan, something she sets out to do as a deliberate sacrifice for her parents' sake. But a self-revelation on Mary's part and an unexpected catastrophe combine to put an end to this...and in the aftermath, a friendship gradually grows between Mary and Bibbs, a friendship that inspires him with the will to live and to endure the work his father has pushed him into. Yet trouble still lies ahead, as Sibyl now cherishes a grudge against Mary and intends to exact bitter revenge on her...When I started to read The Turmoil for the first time, I thought it would be hard to take a book seriously with a protagonist named Bibbs. But after just a few chapters I had forgotten all about his name (which is explained early in the story), and by the middle of the second reading I just loved him. Tarkington demonstrated in other books his ability to create characters you want to smack upside the head, but here he proves an equal ability to create, in Bibbs Sheridan and Mary Vertrees, characters you love and whom your heart aches for, so that you long for things to turn out well for them. Even Sheridan Sr., exasperating as he is, you can never really hate; there are moments, especially toward the end, where you feel a kind of fondness for him in his bluntness and rough good intentions. All the characters, good and bad, are drawn with the same keen, understated insight that is probably what I like best about Tarkington's writing, and the story is not without its moments of joy and humor in the midst of the drama.I think what may have left me feeling a little ambivalent on that first reading was that Tarkington doesn't seem to pull a definite conclusion out of the themes of the book—he doesn't say or give us to understand whether it's Bibbs or his father who is definitively right, or what the solution to the chaos of industrialization is. Considering this now, though, I wonder if that's because Tarkington was living and writing in the very midst of that era: maybe he honestly didn't know. He offers a suggestion of hope in Bibbs' imaginings about the future near the end, a note which rings a bit false a hundred years later, when we can see it didn't quite turn out that way. But unlike other, "greater" novelists, he does one thing definitely right: he brings his characters' story to a fitting, satisfying resolution. If there is a message of any kind in The Turmoil, the one I sensed was that it's possible to find personal fulfillment and happiness even in the midst of a chaotic society. The final scene of the book has to be one of my favorite book endings now; it's just so beautiful, and...perfect.
Someone (maybe my literary daughter, Rachel) added this author's book "The Magnificent Ambersons" to her list, and after reading the reviews, I added it to my list. Then I realized it was the 2nd in a kind of series, "The Growth Trilogy", so I got this, the first one, out of the library. It was not as popular, apparently, as the 2nd one, which won the Pulitzer, but I found myself wrapped up in the story. It's very much the story of quality/class/art/sensibility versus low-brow crass capitalism and progress-at-all-costs. The word communism is actually used a couple of times, and so is "socialism," and so is "n_______" with a lot of stereotyping of black servants' dialects. But that would have been appropriate for the time - 1915. Booth Tarkington was one of the most popular novelists of his time, and one can see a bit of self-indulgent autobiography in the main character, Bibbs Sheridan, who is more sensitive, more intelligent, more open-minded, more artistic, and less caught up in "grubbing" for money than his father and brothers, who all disdain him for his scribblings. Tarkington is not Jane Austen, but in telling the story of his time, he is compelling, and I stayed up way too late to finish the book.
Do You like book The Turmoil (2007)?
I read The Turmoil because it's the first in a three book series, the second of which is The Magnificent Ambersons, a Pulitzer winner. I'd also previously read Tarkington's Penrod which became one of my all-time favorites. So, how did The Turmoil stack up? It's not hilarious as Penrod, though there are some really funny parts. It's also not as much of a vocabulary lesson, but it definitely stands on its own as a book worth reading. It took some time to grow on me, but grow on me it did, and by the end I, who have maybe cried at the ending of three books in my entire life, couldn't hold back a tear or two. The Turmoil was written well into the Industrial Revolution and as such, the story revolves heavily around business and industry. In some ways this book reminded me of Garrett's The Driver. The themes are similar and both have love stories intertwined. Only The Driver is clearly a pro-capitalism, pro-business and anti-intervention book. The Turmoil seems to take the opposite stance, but is more subtle. It heavily criticizes the downsides of the constant striving for "bigness," both on the land and on those who are wrapped up in the struggle, but it's not an out and out disparagement of business and growth. The theme of the book is actually more about work versus art, love and beauty, or perhaps to state it more concisely, the role of work in life.The main character is Bibbs, the sickly son of the recently made, rich and powerful businessman Mr. Sheridan. Bibbs is a poet at heart and has no natural inclination for business, preferring instead to sit, think and write. In his own words, "The rooster and the prosperous worker: they are born, they grub, they love; they grub and love grubbing; they grub and they die. Neither knows beauty; neither knows knowledge." Bibb's character is almost cartoonish in his unflinching aversion for work and his love of poetry. His father is the opposite. He can't see any purpose for having children other than as heirs to his business. Work is his god, his greatest goal and highest virtue is "to make two blades o' grass grow where one grew before!" Bibbs to him is "a mighty funny boy, and some ways I reckon he's pretty near as hard to understand as the Bible." The book is the complex interplay between these two characters, Sheridan's other children, and their, now poor, old-money neighbors, particularly their daughter, Mary.It's a beautiful and relevant story. Despite the focus on business, it is a story about humanity; our need to provide, our innate desire for growth and the value of the precious series of moments that we call life."Ugly I am but never forget that I AM a god! The highest should serve, but so long as you worship me for my own sake I will not serve you. It is man who makes me ugly, by his worship of me. If man would let me serve him, I should be beautiful!"
—Marcus
My quest to read all fiction Pulitzer's hit an early road bump since The Magnificent Ambersons is the second in a trilogy. The Turmoil is the first and depicts a period of time in the life of the Sheridan's and more precisely the lives and relationship of Mr. Sheridan and his youngest son and heir, Bibbs. The Sheridan's are a newly wealthy family fresh on the success of Mr. Sheridan's business savvy. Already with two sons and a daughter, Bibbs quickly becomes the outcast of the family. Even his name was an afterthought and without the usual joy of a new infant. Bibbs is in almost all respects different from his father and siblings. He is tall but sickly slender with an unpleasant paleness and unforgivably without business ambitions. He is committed to a sanitarium and the novel begins with his uninspired homecoming.Tarkington's story embarks to illustrate in words the effect of industrialization and capitalism and even gives so far as to nod at the concept of socialism. The midwestern city is constantly bombarded by soot and noise, the proverbial manna from "the god of all good American hearts-Bigness". The consummate businessman has a set of expectations and they all amount to pursuit of Bigness. I was often reminded of my child's favorite Disney cartoon, Princess Sofia in which Sofia's sister sings a song with a lyric: "Bigger is Better and Biggest is Best". Business is an all consuming force in Tarkington's industrial city and often described in terms of worship. The bank is described as the Temple - perhaps purposefully contrasting with the biblical image of Christ's rampage on the money changers in the Temple. Beauty is not just disregarded but shunned as antagonistic to successful business. Family is also considered secondary to the Machine. (view spoiler)[Mr. Sheridan flatly dismisses his second son, even threats to disinherit him, when he elects sanity over the constant strain of running the family businesses. Ironically, Bibbs becomes his father's only chance at postmortem success. (hide spoiler)]
—Joseph Whitt
3.5 starsIt dragged in a few spots, but overall a very interesting book. I loved the ending.I had a really, really hard time picking a trilogy for this challenge. I wanted to go with something that would be good. (I'd been in a book desert and hadnt found any GREAT books for a while.) So I looked and looked for what I thought would hold my interest. I decided to go with this because the second book of the trilogy was a Pulitzer and my lifetime goal is to read every Pulitzer. Shouldnt have. While this book was sufficiently entertaining, I thought I'd never finish the second book.(a trilogy, 1st book)
—Michelle Johnson
