Scan barcode
A review by kmecholsky
A Time to Be Born by Dawn Powell
5.0
Go to the bookstore or library and buy a Dawn Powell novel now.
You have no excuses anymore. You've never heard of her until now. And now that you have, you must read her.
Dawn Powell's A Time to Be Born is a vicious indictment of the intelligentsia of 30s and 40s New York society. Scratch that. It's a vicious indictment of society period. Imagine a Theodore Dreiser novel (I'm thinking Sister Carrie). Now imagine that Theodore Dreiser novel written by Jane Austen. Now imagine every character in that Jane-Austen-written Dreiser novel utterly drunk, defensive, and self-deceived. Throw in a dash of Vonnegut/Wilde-an wit and you have an idea of what a Dawn Powell novel reads like.
If you like Modernist fiction, especially Modernist fiction featuring loads of drunken, broken people, read A Time to Be Born. Just read it. You're not going to regret it.
You have no excuses anymore. You've never heard of her until now. And now that you have, you must read her.
Dawn Powell's A Time to Be Born is a vicious indictment of the intelligentsia of 30s and 40s New York society. Scratch that. It's a vicious indictment of society period. Imagine a Theodore Dreiser novel (I'm thinking Sister Carrie). Now imagine that Theodore Dreiser novel written by Jane Austen. Now imagine every character in that Jane-Austen-written Dreiser novel utterly drunk, defensive, and self-deceived. Throw in a dash of Vonnegut/Wilde-an wit and you have an idea of what a Dawn Powell novel reads like.
If you like Modernist fiction, especially Modernist fiction featuring loads of drunken, broken people, read A Time to Be Born. Just read it. You're not going to regret it.