Young Lonigan

Studs Lonigan #1

by James T. Farrell, Ann Douglas

The first volume of James T. Farrell's remarkable Studs Lonigan trilogy

An American classic in the vein of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath , the first book of James T. Farrell's powerful Studs Lonigan trilogy covers five months of the young hero's life in 1916, when he is sixteen years old. In this relentlessly naturalistic yet richly complex portrait, Studs is carried along by his swaggering and shortsighted companions, his narrow family, and his educational and religious background toward a fate that he resists yet cannot escape.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Coming Of Age, Literature, American, Novels, Historical Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

James Thomas Farrell was an American novelist. One of his most famous works was the Studs Lonigan trilogy, which was made into a film in 1960 and into a television miniseries in 1979. The trilogy was voted number 29 on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Studs Lonigan, on the verge of fifteen, and wearing his first suit of long trousers, stood in the bathroom with a Sweet Caporal pasted in his mug. His hands were jammed in his trouser pockets, and he sneered. He puffed, drew the fag out of his mouth, inhaled and said to himself:

Well, I’m kissin’ the old dump goodbye tonight.

Thus do we meet “Studs” Lonigan in 1916, on the verge of (maybe) entering high school.

Young Lonigan - the first part of James T. Farrell’s trilogy Studs Lonigan. Farrell, born in 1904, in the Irish section of Chicago’s South Side. William/Bill/”Studs” Lonigan, born maybe a couple years earlier, but essentially same time, same place.

Studs and his family live on South Wabash Avenue, in the area of Chicago bounded by East 60th Street and East 57th Street on the south and north, S. State Street to the west, and S. Prairie Avenue to the east. A little farther east, across Calumet Avenue, lies Washington Park, Washington Lagoon, and Bynum Island, where Studs spends an afternoon in that summer of 1916 talking with Lucy, a girl who lives on in his memory in an achingly poignant manner.

Studs, constantly ragged by his siblings, but tormented by his dad Pat, who has plans for William – a few more years of schooling, then learn the painting business, starting as an apprentice and working his way up, and finally “step in and run the works”. Meanwhile his mother Mary constantly urging Studs to “pray”, to open himself to the calling - of the priesthood. This while Studs yearns to join the older kids, tough guys, young men who are experienced with the girls (to hear them talk), who all have their own problems with their own families, being pushed by that first generation of hard-working (and many hard drinking) Irish who made a life in Chicago.

Farrell knows the people, knows the kids, knows the territory. Thank goodness for him, he resisted the temptations of the hard urban life on that South Side, as the Jews and Blacks begin to infiltrate the Irish neighborhood, ethnic hatred and worse beginning to bubble in the stew.

Studs. Tough guy. Sexually frustrated, tormented by fears of divine retribution, constantly swaying between fear of being looked on as a young brat (not even worth attention from the older guys), and a childish pride in a hard-boiled image that becomes protective armor - whenever he can get in a wisecrack that makes the older boys laugh, or a hurtful remark or even a smash to the face to a member of the scorned tribes, that the older guys will admire – anything to be part of that crew, that group that he desperately wants to join, so as to somehow free himself from the expectations of that first generation who have such plans for their kids.

I remember reading the trilogy close to half a century ago. It’s raw, natural, a mantel of urban realism, and ultimately tragically sad. I’ve wanted to reread it now for some time. I’m on my way.



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Previous review: The World as I Found It
Next review: The Ornament of the World
Older review: Values in a Universe of Chance

Previous library review: Studs Lonigan the trilogy
Next library review: The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 3 out of 5]

”He remembered Sister Bertha saying that God tested you with temptations of sins of the flesh, and if you were able to withstand them you needn’t worry about not getting into Heaven. Ninety-nine per cent of all the souls in Hell were there because of sins of the flesh.
Hell suddenly hissed in Stud’s mind like a Chicago fire. It was a seat of dirty, mean, purple flames; a sea so big you couldn’t see nothing but it; and the moans from the sea were terrible, more awful and terrible than anything on earth.... And all the heads of the damned kept bobbing up, bobbing up. And everybody there was damned for eternity, damned to moan and burn, with only their heads now and then bobbing up out of the flames. And if Studs died now, with his soul black from mortal sin, like it was, well, that was where he would go, and he would never see God, and he would never see Lucy, because she was good and would go to heaven, and he would never see Lucy...for ever.
And Studs was afraid of Old Man Death.”



William “Studs” Lonigan has just graduated from 8th grade Catholic School and is trying to convince himself and everybody he knows that he will not be going on to High School. He comes from a fairly well to do family. His father owns rental properties. When he brings up the idea of not going on to school it is more about how it will look to the community than the impact it will have on Studs future. He is smart, well liked, and a great athlete all attributes that will help him be successful with further education. At fourteen his understanding of women is rudimentary at best. He is in love with Lucy Scanlan or at least he thinks he is.

”She came out wearing a reddish-orange wash dress which looked nice on her, because she was dark, curly-haired, with red-fair skin, and the dress set her off just right. And she had on a little powder and lipstick, but it didn’t make her look like a sinful woman or anything of the sort. Studs didn’t usually pay attention to how girls looked, except to notice the shape of their legs, because if they had good legs they were supposed to be good for you-know, and if they didn’t they weren’t; and to notice their boobs, if they were big enough to bounce. He looked at Lucy. She was cute, all right. He told himself that she was cute. He told himself that he liked her. He repeated to himself that he liked her, and she was cute. His heart beat faster, and he scarcely knew what he was doing.”

Ahh yes I remember those days vividly when my desires were like an electrical current permanently plugged into some cosmic lightning bolt. I remembering wandering around more animal than man in a dopamine haze wishing I had a girlfriend or at least that a girl would notice me. Well Studs does better than I did.



”She pursed her lips before she kissed him. It was so sudden, and her lips had such a sweet, candy taste that he was pleasantly surprised and stood there, not knowing what to do or say. He had never kissed sweet lips like that before. He faced her, and she was something beautiful anf fair, with her white dress vivid in the dark room. She looked beautiful, like a flame. She pursed her lips, moved closer to him, flung her arms around him, kissed him, and said:
‘I like you!’
She kissed away his surprise, looked dreamily into his eyes, kissed him again, long, and then dashed out.
‘Jesus Christ!’ he said to himself.”

Have you ever had a character that you wanted to just reach down into the bowels of the book and take him by the shoulders and give him a good shake?

I felt that way about Studs.

[image error]
The 1960 movie was directed by Irving Lerner.

He has everything going for him. He is sensitive enough to notice the world around him beyond the most obvious observable things. He has a girlfriend, almost, who will make the boys in the neighborhood and in the surrounding neighborhoods green with envy. He has a best friend named Helen that understands him better than any boy can expect to be understood at the age of fourteen. The world is just waiting for him to grow up so he can be handed his successful life on a silver platter.

”He wanted to stand there, and think about Lucy....And he goddamned himself, because he was getting soft. He was Studs Lonigan, a guy who didn’t have mushy feelings! He was a hard-boiled egg that they had left in the pot a couple of hours too long.”



Another byproduct of surging hormones is a feeling of invincibility and a need to prove that you are tough. He starts to hang out with the local punks and deadbeats. He gets into a physical altercation with the neighborhood bully Weary Reilly and I can feel Studs future hanging in the balance. If he wins he loses and if he loses he might just win.


The Scowling James T. Farrell

James T. Farrell grew up in Chicago, Illinois and did not fare as well as Studs for an upbringing. His parents were too poor to care for him and he was raised by his grandparents. He knows first hand the vernacular of the streets of Chicago and this book brims with the authentic voices of 1916. Farrell was also active in Trotskyist politics and joined the Socialist Workers Party. When he became critical of the policies of the SWP he decided that only capitalism would defeat Stalinism and joined the Socialist Party of America. Despite their differences he did stay in touch with the Trotskyist movement for the rest of his life. This book is the first of a trilogy featuring our hero Studs Lonigan. On the flap of the Library of America edition is some interesting information about the impact of the trilogy on American society.

”His unsentimental depiction of the sex lives of Studs and his companions was shocking to contemporary sensibilities, and the trilogy was attacked and sometimes banned as an offense to morals. Equally disturbing to some readers was Farrell’s relentless questioning of education, home life, and the hollowness and spiritual poverty of the cultural choices offered to his protagonist.”

I am moving right on to book two in the trilogy. I felt that the book lacked a conclusion or at the very least I just wanted something more from the book. The writing is vivid and at times really damn compelling. Maybe Farrell had it in mind to write a trilogy from the very beginning or an editor decided to break the work up into several books. I had a friend caution me that I would like the trilogy better if I read it together so THAT is exactly what I will do. More from the streets of Chicago next week.

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am starting my voyage through the 30s now and felt that this book, being the first of a classic trilogy, was a necessary stopover on my way through the Pulitzers. Studs Lonigan is an Irish adolescent who is destined to burn out rather young and in this book we see him at the end of middle school as he is 14 going on 15. The book is written in a realistic style like that of Theo Dreiser or Henry James, but is cringlingly full of the overtly racist and anti-semitic sentiment that pervaded the United States at the time including violence acted upon Jews just due to their association with being "Jesus-killers". Admittedly, those parts were hard to read. Also, the sexuality is raw and violent as well: I really wonder whether a 15yo girl like Iris would really be inviting boys to gang rape her as described.
I hesitate whetherto read the other two books about the young manhood and death at 30yo of Studs because we can already see how things will end up and the character is so pathetically void of self-knowledge with the emotional maturity of a squawling newborn.

[Rozzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are important books one reads not for pure personal pleasure but, particularly in early life, to understand other times and places and states of mind. For me, the Studs Lonigan trilogy, along with many other books, were works like that. This was a different time (the early 20th Century), a different place (working class Chicago) and a different aesthetic (classical realism). And as such they definitely worked for me. There's a limit to how much difference we can experience in "real life," being tethered to specific people, places and roles even if we have choices. To add to that we have to resort to the vicarious, mainly through reading novels. For me, the Thirties, of which the Lonigan trilogy is a product, was long ago and far away, though full of familiar history to which I'd been exposed early. And the Lonigan trilogy was intended to be very serious, almost experimental literature. It may well have succeeded as such for those reading it at the time it was written. For me it was another brick in the construct of my conception of America, my own country.

[Gary Inbinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

William (Studs) Lonigan is fourteen going on fifteen. The year is 1916; the place, a lower-middle-class predominantly Irish neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Studs is about to graduate from St. Patrick’s, a parochial grammar school. He’s wearing his first suit with long pants. He locks himself in the bathroom, smokes cigarettes and mugs in the mirror, trying to look tough. He’s saying good-bye to “the old dump,” meaning St. Patrick’s. He’s also saying good-bye to childhood. He thinks of many things as he mugs and smokes, about school and the Sisters and his pals, about Lucy the girl he loves, about his rival and nemesis Weary Reilly. But mostly he thinks about what a tough, grown-up guy he is, and how he won’t be pushed around and told what to do.

His sister knocks on the bathroom door. She has a part in a graduation play and Studs is going to make her late. She’s nervous; she won’t be able to perform. She complains to their mother; she complains to their father. Studs is hogging the bathroom; he’s probably in there smoking. In the meantime, Studs flushes the butt and works frantically to clear the air of tobacco smoke. Nobody’s going to push him around; nobody’s going to tell him what to do. So, begins “Young Lonigan” the first novel in the Studs Lonigan trilogy.

The action takes place over the summer break between grammar school graduation and high school. Studs isn’t sure he wants to go to high school. He thinks it might be better to go to work for his “old man,” a successful painting contractor. Then he’d have money in his pockets, an independent man instead of a boy still in school. His mother definitely wants him to further his education. She imagines her son might have a calling for the priesthood, an extreme example of maternal wishful thinking.

Like just about everyone his age—and many of us older folks, too—Studs is confused and conflicted about many things, including his feelings for Lucy. His only goal is an immediate one; he wants to punch out Weary Reilly and establish himself as the toughest kid on the block, and one of the toughest, if not the toughest in the neighborhood. To achieve his goal, he launches himself on a summer festival of hooliganism: fist fights, bullying, vandalism, petty theft, tobacco chewing and spitting, hanging out with the older guys at the local pool hall, and “gang shagging” the neighborhood “bad girl.” And there’s racism and anti-Semitism expressed in the ugliest epithets, jokes, taunts and gang violence. This is not “Happy Days.”

Much of the novel is written in a skillful, sometimes poetic stream of consciousness, most notably a scene with Studs and Lucy going to a park, climbing and sitting in a tree, the only time in the novel in which they really connect with each other. In another memorable scene Studs and one of his pals go for a swim in Lake Michigan; Studs seems to become one with nature; it’s beautifully written.
Throughout the novel, Farrell’s narrative draws the reader into the head of his young protagonist while giving you a sense of time and place with sharply delineated, sometimes excruciatingly painful realism.

A personal note. I grew up on Chicago’s West Side during the fifties and early sixties in a neighborhood much like the one Farrell depicted. I knew kids like Studs, Weary Reilly, Davey Cohen, Lucy, Helen and the rest. The novel brought back memories, mostly unpleasant, and I give the author credit for his tough and honest portrayal of kids growing up in a particular time and place.

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably more of a coming of age story than anything else. 1916, and it opens when William "Studs" Lonigan and his younger sister, Frances, are graduating from 8th grade at St. Patrick's Catholic grade school in Chicago. Summer arrives and Studs is left pretty much to his own devices. Nearing 15, he thinks mostly about girls. And he manages to hang out with some other boys who are well on their way to a life of crime.

I came to wish that was all there was to it. The writing fits the story extremely well. While I might not have liked Studs, his characterization is excellent. There is virtually no plot, but I have been known to embrace character driven novels and I was certainly due for one. But maybe 25 or so pages from the end was this:

They laughed. Kenny said they were in little Jewrusalem now, and they could probably catch a couple of Jew babies.

Two hooknoses, about Studs’ size, did come along. Andy and Johnny O’Brien, the two youngest in the gang, stopped the shonickers.

There had been some racism earlier including other offensive and disgusting words, but no confrontation. This turned into a shellacking and for no good reason other than to show the Irish the superior ethnicity and who ran the neighborhood.

I'm not sure whether I'll read the rest of the trilogy. I have so many books to read. Without the anti-semitism and racism, I might have rated this a high 3-stars or maybe even 4-stars. But the above just sickened me. 2-stars is the best I can find and even that might be too high.

[Steve]

Studs Lonigan has graduated from 8th grade in 1916 with an itch to grow up fast in this first volume of a trilogy. Studs is the product of a South Side Chicago, working-class, Irish-Catholic family. He is immersed in the culture of social conflict and behaviors endemic to that time and place. The immediate question is whether young Studs will take the left path or the right one in his journey, work the streets with the Fifty-eight Street gang or pursue an education at least through high school. Care to guess?

Mr. Farrell captured a great portion of our national character, then and now, with this passage:

He walked for blocks, not recognizing where he was going, feeling disgraced, feeling that everybody was against him, blaming everybody, blaming that little runt, Danny O’Neill. He felt that he was a goddamn clown. He blamed himself for getting soft and goofy about a skirt. He planned how he would get even, and kept telling himself that no matter what happened, it couldn’t really affect him, because STUDS LONIGAN was an iron man, and when anybody laughed at the iron man, well, the iron man would knock the laugh off the face of Mr. Anybody with the sweetest paste in the mush that Mr. Anybody ever got. He vowed this, and felt his iron muscle for assurance. But he didn’t really feel like an iron man. He felt like a clown that the world was laughing at.

These words remind me of our recent disgraceful past. And how did Studs Lonigan’s future evolve endowed with that insecure machismo? How will our nation’s? What we’ve seen so far sure is quite blemished.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mehhh.... it's a classic American social novel... blehh, wehhhh, bleating sheep... sorry, not particularly to this guy's taste.

The writing is fairly unadorned, but colorfully of the time and place - Chicago 1910's working class dialect. I am sure that at the time this was published it seemed startlingly ugly and real, but I guess for me this coming-of-age, drifting off in the wrong direction, story of the titular character doesn't seem to stand the test of time. Maybe it's just that I am too sensitive to the baked-in, but largely accurate, racism, antisemitism, and sexism that permeates the pages. It's a rough and tumble story that is obviously just the beginning of Stud's story, appearing to be the first steps towards a largely deserved decent. Perhaps I really am curmudgeonly old man, I just kept thinking things along the lines of, "Respect your elders, you little shit, and your peers, hell, respect yourself a bit too!". I am semi-curious about how Studs will further his degradation into what I can only suspect is a life of debauchery and criminality... I may even pick up The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan eventually, who knows. Not terrible, I think it's more of a stylistic issue for me than anything else, but the 'hard-boiled', adolescent slurs and bemoaning also wore thin, and this is a pretty darn short book to wear thin on ya.

[Allan · Rating 2 out of 5]

While James T Farrell is apparently lauded by writers and critics alike as one of the greatest American writers of blue collar experience in the early 20th century, I found this first part of the Studs Lonigan trilogy dated. The portrayal of corner boys socking each other and thumbing their noses as insult was relatively tame by today's standards, but Studs' rise to be 'cock of the walk' was very repetitive. I was annoyed by the characters engaging in sustained casual racism, and sometimes violence in this regard, although I suppose this would probably have been accurate on the south side of Chicago in the late 1920s / early 1930s.

There were some interesting strands-the mortal sins alluded to and the ensuing guilt showed the hold the Catholic Church obviously held over the Irish American youth of the day, and the character of Heather, not the typical 'girly girl' was one that I was interested in, and one that no doubt is developed in the second and third books, but I'm afraid these points won't be enough for me to read any further in the series in the near future.

I think I'll stick to Steinbeck for my next dose of 1930s blue collar America.

[Aloe Ronen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Young Lonigan, while most certainly considered a classic and was once seen as a contender for the "Great American Novel" of its time, fell disappointingly flat for me. Published in the 1930s, it is centered around the early life of a protagonist who exemplifies the worst aspects of teenage male bravado without offering any meaningful character development or redeeming qualities. Studs Lonigan is essentially a one-dimensional portrait of adolescent machismo.

While Studs is supposedly written as a (possibly sensitive) teenage boy trying to fit in by acting tough by beating up Black and Jewish kids with his friends, this trope is poorly written and executed. If he were truly meant to be some secretly emotionally deep guy--the odd one out from his gang of boys on the block--we would have had some form for character development.

In truth, I understand why this book may have once been considered a "Great American Novel". I see how it could have resonated with all of the young male readers of the mid-20th century who saw themselves in his "tough guy" persona, seeing in his aggressive posturing a reflection of their own attempts to navigate their wanna-be punk masculine identity. This novel had the potential to be a powerful critique of toxic masculinity, examining how young men like Studs were shaped by and perpetuated harmful societal expectations, it instead merely presents these behaviors at face value. A more nuanced exploration of how his "tough guy" persona affected both the character and those around him would have made for a more compelling and relevant narrative. Instead, the lack of critical examination or character growth leaves me with a shallow portrayal that neither illuminates the historical context nor offers meaningful commentary on masculinity's social costs.

As a female reader, I found the experience dull and alienating. Every page turned was a chore. The novel's treatment of women is understandably but obnoxiously dated, and female characters exist primarily as targets for Stud's fantasies or as background decorations in his world of masculine posturing. The casual misogyny woven throughout the narrative makes it difficult to engage with the text on any meaningful level. While I can appreciate that Farrell may have been attempting to capture the authentic mindset of a young man of that era, the complete lack of critique or counterbalance to these attitudes makes for an exhausting read. There's little positive acknowledgment of women's humanity or complexity, which might have been acceptable to readers in the 1930s but feels jarringly tone-deaf today. Even from a historical perspective, the novel fails to provide meaningful insights into gender dynamics of the period, instead wallowing in its protagonist's limited and limiting worldview. This makes it particularly challenging for female readers to find any educational or literary value in the work beyond serving as a documentation of past attitudes we've hopefully evolved beyond.

While I understand this book's historical significance in portraying Irish-Catholic immigrant youth in Chicago during this era, its appeal seems largely limited to its time period and narrow demographic. As a piece of literature assumed to transcend its era, it falls disappointingly short. The "celebration" of toxic masculinity and immaturity without any real critique makes this a tough read in a modern lens.

Not recommended unless you're specifically studying literature of this period or enjoy reading about dreadfully unlikable protagonists.

[Deb Jenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story really gives you a view into what life was like in the 1920's living on Chicago's south side in an Irish neighborhood.

[Martin Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his book, The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler suggests that stories may have evolved from fireside tales designed to help youngsters prepare for their first journeys out beyond the safety of the tribal hearth. Young Lonigan, published in 1932, is the first volume of James T. Farrell’s trilogy, about an Irish-American boy, William ‘Studs’ Lonigan, growing up in early twentieth century Chicago. It’s a story about a youth preparing to set out on the journey of adulthood. We begin in 1916, with Studs graduating from his Catholic elementary school, aged fourteen, and then follow him through the summer as he waits to go to high school in the autumn. Studs hangs around his local area trying to act tough while quietly thinking poetic thoughts inspired by nature and his sweetheart, Lucy. Sadly, Studs’ more sensitive side tends to fall out of view as the weeks pass. Finer feelings are stamped on by the influence of unsavoury friends. The future looks difficult for this young man.

We could ask whether, in the Writer’s Journey sense, there is help and advice on offer here. Is the book saying, for example, that you should live for the moment? The most beautiful scenes involve Studs simply appreciating his present moment, an ecstatic yet peaceful swim in Lake Michigan, and an afternoon sitting with Lucy up in the boughs of a tree in a Chicago park. However, despite Lake Michigan and the tree, the delayed consequences of eating all your sweets at once are very clear. ‘Advice’ about behaviour is similarly ambivalent. There is certainly no sense that the moral of the tale is that youngsters should behave well and do as they’re told. The values of all parents and authority figures in the book are suspect. Studs’ father has settled for a rather empty life, where sitting on his porch reading about violent crimes in the newspaper seems to be the highlight of his day. The Church is just a mess of hypocrisy and nonsense. There is one ‘cool dad’ who seems to understand and support young people - a Mr O’Brian. But he is really the worst role model of all, a disgusting, racist bigot. He is only popular with the boys because he would rather encourage their prejudices than challenge them. Far better advice comes from one of Studs’ contemporaries, the lovely Helen Shires, a tomboy who sees the best in her friend and tries to warn him where his choices might take him. So, if we can’t say the book advises good behaviour and respect for our elders, is it advising that the young overthrow convention? Once again the answer is no. The fighting and petty crime with suggestions of graduating on to more major crime, gives no sense that defying convention is the right course. Besides, defying convention in one sense is to be highly conventional in another. Rebellious youth might seem to challenge social pressure to conform, only to find itself bowing to the equally malign forces of peer pressure.

What then does a young person, or any reader, take from this? I think they might take a feeling that life is not about simple answers and advice. You have to plan for the future and yet live for today. You have to be yourself, follow your own instincts, and yet respect the views of others. As Kipling says in If, his poem of advice to a young man, you have to trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. As in If, the only consistency in the advice of Young Lonigan lies in its continued contradictions. And if that lesson seems complicated, well that’s often the way it is with lessons.

“And if you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run

Then yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it

And - which is more - you’ll be a Man my son”

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is an appeal to witnessing the inevitable loss of innocence and social degeneration of our young protagonist Studs Lonigan. At its heart it's an anti-Bildungsroman: Studs doesn't so much come of age as he does kick his childhood to the curb as unceremoniously as he can manage. The most engaging portions of the book are the ones in which Studs actually gives himself over to the reckless, big-feeling abandon of youth -- swimming with a pal on a summer's afternoon, deliriously kissing a girl in a tree. Because we know (roughly) Studs' ultimate destiny as a degenerate and social outcast, these moments of innocence come crashing through as deeply poignant.

Farrell's writing contains moments of brilliance, but most of the prose is simplistic and without the rhythm and poetry of some of his more well-remembered contemporaries.

The racism present in the dialogue and inner monologues of the Irish-American teenagers in 1919 Chicago is certainly honest, and presented without judgment. And witnessing it being passed down generationally is very affecting. But the diatribes on the perceived qualities of n*ggers and k*kes are relentless. We are only ever offered a counterpoint at the very end of the book when we get a portion of a chapter narrated by a Jewish boy. He is given a voice for a scant few pages but even then his behavior and described appearance conform to established racial stereotypes.

I'm interested in continuing Studs' journey into manhood in the following two books in the trilogy, but won't be running too quickly to track them down.

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll front this review by saying that I am not a punk urban boy from WWI-era Chicago.

That being said, perhaps it is a little unfair for me to call Studs Lonigan a prejudiced young brute...but that was the determination I quickly made by reading the book.

Young Lonigan certainly captures a few brief moments in an era with elegant language, but I'm not sure it's an era I want to associate myself with. The habit of the young boys to hunt up and down the alleys, fists out, itching to beat down Jews and other minorities was despicable, even when it was clear that the predominant opinions of the fathers of these boys were the same, if not worse. Young Lonigan illustrates in a clear-cut picture the differences between what was culturally acceptable and even encouraged in the early 1900s vs. now. Still, I enjoyed the writing, even though I think the first installment of the trilogy serves more for characterization of Studs than a coming of age story of the decade.

[Iva · Rating 3 out of 5]

These were different times on Chicago's south side; it was 1916 and "Studs" (William) still wears short pants and he is like 15 years old. He hangs out with other Irish Catholic peers whose idea of a good time is to beat up Jews and blacks. Of course this book is dated. Women and girls are portrayed as either whores or put on a pedestal. It was an easy read and it brought me to thinking about Frank McCourt's Irish American experience.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounding up from 2.5.
This is the first part of a trilogy, so the somewhat unsatisfying story arc shouldn’t come as a surprise. For all the talk of the “good old days,” this portrayal of life in 1916 as an Irish-Catholic teenager in Chicagoland leaves me with the impression that our culture has improved a great deal since then.

[Vel Veeter]

I didn’t like this novel so much so that I took the trilogy edition of it and put it in the Little Free Library this morning. I hope someone does like it, but I thought it was not good.

It’s not surprising then that I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn so much, because if we’re read a narration of growing up in New York City that’s the one to read.

In this one, though, we get an ok story….ne’er do well, petty crimes, games of baseball, friends, hatred of school, social analysis of Catholicism.

Oh, right, lots of racism and anti-semitism. Sure sure sure sure sure it’s “accurate” but who cares. I don’t really want to try to connect with and identify with a character whose depiction is accurately drawn, and framed as sympathetic, but is so reprehensibly narrated that it’s not fun or interesting to work my way through it.

I have read plenty of different books that deal in despicable characters. But the issue here is that he’s not presented as despicable, instead, he’s presented as a kind of anti-hero. So I am turning it back in and I won’t be reading more.

I dunno….I had a really adverse reaction to this one that once I got going I only made it to about page 40 before I was really dreading dealing with the rest. I even tried to sell it back to Amazon and had to update my credit card info to make my money back, but there was a hang up.

I guess I am saying I didn’t like it.

[Andy Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would go 4.5 stars. I really like the clear writing style and he really captures the characters and the time period. Studs is a character we all have known or are/were... putting up a front to the world while having something else going on within. He acts tough, gets into fights, etc but underneath it is a sensitive kid. Also the kid that acts tough even though he comes from a nice family and you can tell is ultimately a pretty good kid but acts out to have a "rep". Also it does a good job capturing being 15 years old and the perilous interactions you have with girls... and the different types of girls.. your idealized girl you like, the "friend" girl that is probably a better human being and match for you than idealized girl and the bad rep some girls get whether its true or not. I liked the overbearing mother trying to steer him into being a good irish catholic boy who goes into the clergy. I just thought it captured that time in peoples lives, trying to figure things out, growing up but not really a grown up. I really enjoyed this 1st book in the trilogy and look forward to reading the other 2 and where Stud's story goes.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for a class and remember really despising it. It struck me as yet another story attempting to expose the dark underbelly of Irish Catholics in America. In Chicago specifically. I get that all was not and is not perfect, but I feel like if it's not going to be done in a new and interesting way, the story's been done. But like Angela's Ashes or something, it takes it to a crazy extreme with things like I think a 12 year old secret prostitute-type character. Just sick and depressing and way too dark for my taste. Having said that, since this was for a college class and I was thereby forced to read it, I can't be sure I read the whole thing.

[Tom Ivey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made me very glad I am not 14 years old...

[John King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much, which was recommended to me by Goodreads. I just purchased the other two books of the trilogy, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan and Judgement Day.

[Dave Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

On becoming a thug

Young Lonigan is the first in the Studs Lonigan trilogy. Published in 1932 and covering the summer of 1916, Young Lonigan recounts the tale of William Lonigan, Studs to the lads from St. Patrick's Elementary School who, at 14, was finishing grammar school and had no intention going any further. Of course, his parents who never received a formal education, don't know that.

A second or third generation Irish American kid (they don't clarify in book one) from the Back of the Yards Chicago, Studs doesn't see the Irishness in his Irish Americaness so much as the sense that the Southside of Chicago belongs to him and the people like him. Particularly, white people. And not just any white people but white Christians who contend with the Jews and non-white eastern Europeans with equal measures of contempt.

Studs and his pals relate more to the Chicago toughs who rule the streets of Chicago than the working stiffs like their fathers who thrive at a level vastly improved upon from the immigrant grandparents.

At fourteen, Studs is preoccupied with little more than thoughts of girls and hanging with his boys on the corner and contending with the guilt of parents who expect their children to succeed more than they did and a church who fills them with shame for thinking and feeling young and lustful.

Young Lonigan doesn't have a plot. Like his inspiration James Joyce, James T. Farrell writes inna stream of consciousness dwelling on nothing more than a moment.

Young Lonigan sets the stage for the Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan as America is on the doorstep of a global war that will transform the political and social culture of a nation.

As one would guess, the language is course and racist and extremely diminishing of anyone not considered white. But it is an accurate look at Chicago and young men of its time. #younglonigan #studslonigan #jamestfarrell #readtheworldchallenge #readtheworld

[George Petrellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it interesting from a historical perspective rather than an enjoyable read.
We see the blue-collar society of Chicago in 1910 through the eyes of young Studs (William) Lonigan, a 14-year old caught between the boy he was and the man he dreams to be. Studs is experience his first romantic love awakening along with his sexuality while trying to find his place in the local community.
Studs is not particularly bright and through his simple mind, the writer colorfully lays the American society in Chicago without any criticism or judgement. Personally, I found this approach quite interesting because it serves the purpose of being objective and accurate by sticking to the events but at the same time, it makes the Studs difficult to like as a character and therefore, making the book a difficult read. Nevertheless, the book touches upon interesting topics such as racism, sexism, antisemitism and even depicts a character that could be well a pedophile, trying to lure young Studs in his house, when he would be alone, to give him piano lessons and "make a proper gentleman out of him". These are difficult topics but keeping in mind that this is how society was 100 years ago is essential to fully understand what the book offers. It is not a moral story about someone who was challenged in life and became a better person but rather a tragic story of how society misguided and left unprotected a young boy, step-by-step.
I will probably read the rest of the trilogy but it might be a while before I do so.

[Sally · Rating 2 out of 5]

In graduate school we read a lot about mimesis, that is the representation of the real. So for a novel to be mimetic, it would try to represent real life. Young Lonigan (and I assume the other two in the trilogy are like this because I'm not going to read them) carries this to an extreme. Imagine remembering a fight with a sibling when you were younger. If you represented it in print it would be pretty boring--lots of you saids and insults and wisecracks. But in most literature this is described or represented briefly not for page after page after page. This novel does that with some frequency, as though the author didn't want to exercise any sort of authorial control over the characters. The story is set in Depression-era Chicago and is about an Irish Catholic adolescent boy who has just graduated from the eight grade. He smokes, he thinks about girls, he suffers Catholic guilt, he cuts school, he fights, and he gets involved in petty crime. In addition he's racist and antisemitic, something he makes clear fairly frequently--he doesn't really seem to like anyone outside his gang, and he changes gangs as well. A thoroughly unpleasant and boring read.

[Gareth Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I judge a book like this by how real it feels, and this feels like being there, with all the strange and not-so-strange patois, racism, and sexual prejudices of the day. The narration is interesting, a kind of free indirect discourse that is a step beyond Theodore Dreiser (whose plain prose, in trying to capture every detail, can be extremely tedious), learning something from modernist techniques yet told in simple, direct language and punchy dialogue (with a lot of punching and foul language thrown in). The characters act and think realistically, and are presented as they are - i.e., do not expect any heroes but do expect to be outraged. This is the first in a trilogy that was designed to be read as such, so I'll hopefully find time for the other two, considerably longer, books soon.

[Dolf van der Haven · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Steinbeck’s Log of the Sea of Cortez, one of the characters read Studs Lonigan and was asked his opinion of it. He was not impressed.
Neither am I.
I appreciate this is a true-to-life tale of the Irish lower class in Chicago in the period immediately following World War 1. I get that all the racism is a sign of the times. I can deal with a total lack of plot.
But there is just nothing interesting in this book, apart from the obviously good writing. At least Frank McCourt was entertaining, but Studs Lonigan bored me to death, apart from some isolated passages.
I don’t think I’ll have the inspiration to read the sequels any time soon.

[Amanda Masters · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because it was listed on the Book of the Month Club's list of what would be in a Well-Stocked Bookcase and Modern Library's list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. (the Studs Lonigan trilogy is listed, and this is the first book of the trilogy.)

This is a book that belongs in my mental category that also includes the Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. I can't deny the mastery with which it was written, but for me, the main character is not someone I want to get to know any better. Everyone in this book seems to be mean and hateful. It's well-done, but so far, this trilogy is not entertaining.

[Korny Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young wannabe hoodlum makes trouble for himself and the citizens on the South side of pre-WWI Chicago. Starts out well with its satire of Irish Catholic school piety and the banalities of home life. But as Studs moves into adolescence and becomes more aggressive the book becomes increasingly repetitive and feels aimless. It does capture the language and racism and violence of the neighborhood it portrays, as well as the inarticulate longings in Studs for something better. Still, it becomes tiresome as he repeats his patterns and anxieties over and over.

[Myron · Rating 2 out of 5]

A coming of age piece with no real plot but more of a documentary type of approach. Farrell does a good job capturing the language usage (slang) used during the era--so much so that I couldn't understand parts of the narrative. Young boys trying to prove their manhood with other young boys, young adults, older men, girls, and young ladies can also provide some humorous accounts throughout. Not a great read for pleasure, but would be great to use as a teaching resource for a literature course.

[Rosemary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why it’s a classic, coming of age story, universal human condition challenges. Though realistic for the time and place (1916, south side of Chicago), I was exhausted by the anti-Semitic and anti-Black references and slurs. There were some wonderful descriptive passages, especially one about swimming in Lake Michigan, that really grabbed me, but I’m not inclined to continue reading the trilogy.