The Store: An Old Review
This is a bit like the 70-year-old Pulitzer version of the lurkers support me in email, but hey, look! A review of The Store from Time magazine back in the day:
Written in the great tradition of well-peopled novels, the book successfully commingles impartial observation and ubiquitous sympathy, tinged with a faintly subacid humor. In pitch, scope, execution it is easily the most important U. S. novel of the year. Col. Miltiades Vaiden, a vastly human character who should walk straight into the U. S. Pantheon, is more than the central figure of the story. He is the focus in which the town of Florence reflects its earthen realities, its haunting bright potentialities.
Really, I should have been lazy and just linked to their summary, it’s better than mine. And they largely agree with me, so what’s not to love. But seriously, anyone who’s read the book might want to check it out for contemporary take on the novel.
