Poole, Ernest (1917). His Family.
Won first Pulitzer Prize for Novel in 1918.
I was reminded of Virginia Woolf’s The Years, but His Family is more personal and slightly less sweeping. The plotting is old-fashioned by today’s standards, but the characterizations are developed and strong. The theme is well executed.
A great document of its time and of New York City in the 1910s. I wish more adults of today would read the book because it shows many of the issues we think of as so contemporary have been with our society for some time. Above all of that, though, this book celebrates family life, kindness, and the idea that with your family around you, you can get through anything.
While the novel features several interesting male characters, it is the females who are most interesting. The work features three kinds of pre-feminist women, although my use of the term pre-femnist here is ironic since the father calls Deborah a feminist at one point. Deborah is a career woman, running a school for immigrant children. She rejects the traditional women’s roles because she is afraid of losing her identity. Edith, her older sister, is the opposite; she is married and has four children, and is pregant with her fifth child. She accepts the traditional, maternal, domestic role of a woman. Laura is the youngest, most carefree sister. She is interested in social activities, games, parties. Laura shows the materialistic woman, and hse married a wealthy man.
These early Pulitzer Prize winning novels show the struggles and hardships that are a part of the uniquely American experience. I think that when they were written part of their purpose was showing that people of all walks of life and personalities have troubles and obstacles in life. While His Family is quite dated in style, it contains some great lyrical passages that transmit the beauty of living and of the passing of generations. For us today, it is an interesting study in the expression, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”