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Studs Lonigan #1-3
Studs Lonigan
An unparalleled example of American naturalism, the Studs Lonigan trilogy follows the hopes and dissipations of its remarkable main character, a would-be "tough guy" and archetypal adolescent, born to Irish-American parents on Chicago's South Side, through the turbulent years of World War I, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression. The three novels--Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, and Judgment Day--offer a vivid sense of the textures of real life: of the institutions of Catholicism, the poolroom and the dance marathon, romance and marriage, gangsterism and ethnic rivalry, and the slang of the street corner. Cited as an inspiration by writers as diverse as Kurt Vonnegut and Frank McCourt, Studs Lonigan stands as a masterpiece of social realism in the ranks of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy.
1024 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1935
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5403 people want to read
About the author
James T. Farrell
268 books89 followersJames 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 138 reviews
January 26, 2012
The basic question when reading a book of this stature is whether it’s worth the time, the effort and the attempt to absorb it. Many who might have read this trilogy will have different opinions, of course. I suspect some, the not so patient, will throw it at a corner and say how sorry and silly it is. But with patience, and an open mind it is possible to find the gold for what this book is. There were, of course, those portions that made me want to abandon it, but on the whole the book was just one hell of a good journey.
The story, which in essence begins by describing the Young Lonigan, goes on to describe The Young manhood of Studs before it ends beautifully but tragically with the death of Studs in Judgment Day. Studs as a boy refuses to be defined by the social expectations that are a common thing among a Catholic upbringing, choosing not to go his parent’s way and become a priest. He also does not go to college, and this is a decision he comes to regret later when the country is hit by depression. His death is so deeply felt, and comes just when he is about to marry, and when the depression has hit the core. He leaves behind a pregnant Catherine, and a father who deeply regrets having to lose a son when he is just thinking of leaving business for him, which in essence has been lost during the depression.
Goes to show how life can be, when we are young and full of dreams, not knowing what will happen to fuck them up or to just shape them into some sweet list of memories when we come to our day of death. But when it is all said and done, we have a part to play in what becomes of us, and Studs chose to fight around – be the local champ, and he chose to smoke and drink, and when the day came, he lay in bed wishing for what can never be done, a resumption of time, for the consequences of what one chose not to be faced!
The story, which in essence begins by describing the Young Lonigan, goes on to describe The Young manhood of Studs before it ends beautifully but tragically with the death of Studs in Judgment Day. Studs as a boy refuses to be defined by the social expectations that are a common thing among a Catholic upbringing, choosing not to go his parent’s way and become a priest. He also does not go to college, and this is a decision he comes to regret later when the country is hit by depression. His death is so deeply felt, and comes just when he is about to marry, and when the depression has hit the core. He leaves behind a pregnant Catherine, and a father who deeply regrets having to lose a son when he is just thinking of leaving business for him, which in essence has been lost during the depression.
Goes to show how life can be, when we are young and full of dreams, not knowing what will happen to fuck them up or to just shape them into some sweet list of memories when we come to our day of death. But when it is all said and done, we have a part to play in what becomes of us, and Studs chose to fight around – be the local champ, and he chose to smoke and drink, and when the day came, he lay in bed wishing for what can never be done, a resumption of time, for the consequences of what one chose not to be faced!
September 12, 2025
A Tale Of Chicago Streets
James T. Farrell's "Studs Lonigan" (1935) is a trilogy which tells the story of the short, unhappy, and brutal life of its title character on the streets of Chicago from 1914 to Lonigan's death at the age of 30 in 1930. The trilogy consists of three separate novels. The first and shortest part of the trilogy, "Young Lonigan" begins with Lonigan's graduation from a Catholic school in the eighth grade. The novel describes the young man's first sexual experience, his decision to drop out of high school, and the beginning of his life as a tough on the streets. The second novel, "The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan" continues the story of Lonigan's deterioration during the years of WW I and thereafter, as Studs becomes a fighter, a predator, sexual and otherwise, a hoodlum, and a drunk while trying to hold a job in his father's painting business. The third volume "Judgment Day" is set during the Great Depression. It chronicles Studs' romance with a young woman, Catherine, his physical deterioration from years of drinking and abuse, and his death from pneumonia and a heart condition, leaving Catherine pregnant and alone. Although Farrell (1904 -- 1979) became a prolific writer and a political activist, he remains known primarily for the Studs Lonigan trilogy, a work of his youth. The Library of America published its edition of "Studs Lonigan" in 2004, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Farrell's birth.
"Studs Lonigan" is a tough, raw naturalistic book which describes life of poor. lower middle class Irish Catholics in Chicago in the first third of the 20th Century. The book owes a great deal to Zola, Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser and other naturalistic writers. Studs Lonigan himself has his good qualities but he appears doomed to failure. The trilogy is a coming of age novel and Lonigan a character who barely escapes adolescence. Raised in a Catholic family in which his father tries to push the boy to join his painting business while his mother urges the boy to consider whether he has a calling to be a priest, Studs does not know what he wants to do with himself. He is fated to a life on the streets which will be short. As a boy of 14, Studs falls in love with a girl named Lucy whom he continues to idealize throughout the book. Midway through the trilogy, after he and Lucy have lost touch for some years, Studs takes her to a dance and alienates her permanently by what Lucy finds to be his overly aggressive sexual demands. Studs tends to vacillate between the ideal of "nice" untouchable girls and raw, crude sex. He has great difficulty establishing a relationship with a woman, although Catherine, the girl he seduces near the end of the trilogy, may have been a plausibly good match for him.
The book is filled with the life of the streets and the aimless wandering of young men in gangs. It is full of the life of the poolroom, bars, cheap dancehalls, parks, brothels, and illicit gambling parlors. A striking scene in the book develops from a sexual encounter between Studs and a desperate woman resulting from her losses to a bookie who happens to be Studs' brother-in-law. Studs is a fighter and prides himself on whipping at the age of 16 a fellow-punk named Weary Reilly who, in the course of the trilogy comes to a worse end than Studs himself. Studs' life on the streets is presented against the background of his stultifying and tense family life and of the Catholicism of his family in school and church. The treatment of the Church and of religion in general is highly unsympathetic. The latter portions of the trilogy offer a strong portrayal of the Depression and its impact on the urban poor in Chicago.
Readers today will be most disturbed by the racism and anti-semitism, epithets and stereotypes, that appear on almost every page of "Studs Lonigan" and that are inseparable from the story. The portrayals a crude in the extreme. Farrell does not adopt or endorse the racism or bigotry of his characters but he does give an uncompromising and uncomfortably explicit portrayal of it.
The trilogy is long and Farrell's writing can be wordy and stilted. But as I continued with the book, I became taken with it and with Studs. Lonigan is mostly an unlikeable character, but Farrell shows him in his weakness, provincialism, awkwardness, and vulnerablilty. The book captures its character and era. The Library of America edition is edited by novelist Pete Hamil. It includes sparse textual notes but a good chronology of Farrell's life. The edition also includes a short chapter called "boys and girls" deleted from the initial version of "Young Lonigan" because of its sexually explicit character.
Robin Friedman
James T. Farrell's "Studs Lonigan" (1935) is a trilogy which tells the story of the short, unhappy, and brutal life of its title character on the streets of Chicago from 1914 to Lonigan's death at the age of 30 in 1930. The trilogy consists of three separate novels. The first and shortest part of the trilogy, "Young Lonigan" begins with Lonigan's graduation from a Catholic school in the eighth grade. The novel describes the young man's first sexual experience, his decision to drop out of high school, and the beginning of his life as a tough on the streets. The second novel, "The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan" continues the story of Lonigan's deterioration during the years of WW I and thereafter, as Studs becomes a fighter, a predator, sexual and otherwise, a hoodlum, and a drunk while trying to hold a job in his father's painting business. The third volume "Judgment Day" is set during the Great Depression. It chronicles Studs' romance with a young woman, Catherine, his physical deterioration from years of drinking and abuse, and his death from pneumonia and a heart condition, leaving Catherine pregnant and alone. Although Farrell (1904 -- 1979) became a prolific writer and a political activist, he remains known primarily for the Studs Lonigan trilogy, a work of his youth. The Library of America published its edition of "Studs Lonigan" in 2004, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Farrell's birth.
"Studs Lonigan" is a tough, raw naturalistic book which describes life of poor. lower middle class Irish Catholics in Chicago in the first third of the 20th Century. The book owes a great deal to Zola, Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Dreiser and other naturalistic writers. Studs Lonigan himself has his good qualities but he appears doomed to failure. The trilogy is a coming of age novel and Lonigan a character who barely escapes adolescence. Raised in a Catholic family in which his father tries to push the boy to join his painting business while his mother urges the boy to consider whether he has a calling to be a priest, Studs does not know what he wants to do with himself. He is fated to a life on the streets which will be short. As a boy of 14, Studs falls in love with a girl named Lucy whom he continues to idealize throughout the book. Midway through the trilogy, after he and Lucy have lost touch for some years, Studs takes her to a dance and alienates her permanently by what Lucy finds to be his overly aggressive sexual demands. Studs tends to vacillate between the ideal of "nice" untouchable girls and raw, crude sex. He has great difficulty establishing a relationship with a woman, although Catherine, the girl he seduces near the end of the trilogy, may have been a plausibly good match for him.
The book is filled with the life of the streets and the aimless wandering of young men in gangs. It is full of the life of the poolroom, bars, cheap dancehalls, parks, brothels, and illicit gambling parlors. A striking scene in the book develops from a sexual encounter between Studs and a desperate woman resulting from her losses to a bookie who happens to be Studs' brother-in-law. Studs is a fighter and prides himself on whipping at the age of 16 a fellow-punk named Weary Reilly who, in the course of the trilogy comes to a worse end than Studs himself. Studs' life on the streets is presented against the background of his stultifying and tense family life and of the Catholicism of his family in school and church. The treatment of the Church and of religion in general is highly unsympathetic. The latter portions of the trilogy offer a strong portrayal of the Depression and its impact on the urban poor in Chicago.
Readers today will be most disturbed by the racism and anti-semitism, epithets and stereotypes, that appear on almost every page of "Studs Lonigan" and that are inseparable from the story. The portrayals a crude in the extreme. Farrell does not adopt or endorse the racism or bigotry of his characters but he does give an uncompromising and uncomfortably explicit portrayal of it.
The trilogy is long and Farrell's writing can be wordy and stilted. But as I continued with the book, I became taken with it and with Studs. Lonigan is mostly an unlikeable character, but Farrell shows him in his weakness, provincialism, awkwardness, and vulnerablilty. The book captures its character and era. The Library of America edition is edited by novelist Pete Hamil. It includes sparse textual notes but a good chronology of Farrell's life. The edition also includes a short chapter called "boys and girls" deleted from the initial version of "Young Lonigan" because of its sexually explicit character.
Robin Friedman
July 17, 2008
Broke my face. I suppose, partially owing to the nominal 'Studs,' i thought this was a slice of life depression novel about getting by or not. it's definitely about not getting by, but the Depression is not strictly speaking what this is about -- an old-fashioned, even for 1935, sex-obsessed, violent, crushingly sad and toweringly beautiful work of art. Makes Sister Carrie look like an issue of JANE Magazine. Ignore at your eternal peril.
June 24, 2018
You can't understand where you are if you don't know where you've been. James Farrell's Studs Lonigan is literature as instruction. It's a history lesson. Our modern society, and the sustained political and social reaction to it, grows from the people and mores of Studs and his times. Many Goodreads' reviewers expressed shock at the coarseness of the language, but political correctness and the acceptance of cultural and racial diversity are recent phenomena in American life. Farrell's trilogy is a first-class example of early 20th century social realism in literature. Another good work of this genre is Mike Gold’s Jews Without Money – which happens to be a title Studs sees at the rental library in Farrell’s third volume. Farrell gets Four Stars from me.
August 9, 2012
One of my great heroes, Studs Terkel -- born Louis Terkel-- adopted the name Studs because he was so affected by this book. I've had it on my list for a long time and have lived the full 874 pages for most of this hot summer. There is so much to talk about. In a nutshell, the book is incendiary; powerful; and eerie in its contemporary feel. Anyone who has ever glorified a past they never lived as being more "moral" or genteel? Should read this tour de force and quickly. They should have their eyes opened to a time that was as squalid and vicious and banal as anything we can conceive today. In fact the parallels with 21st century America are striking. This gloomy decade is, in fact, the perfect moment to dust off Young Lonigan and explore the raw wounds of an American life before the slightly civilized gloss we have constructed for ourselves post WWII.
Studs Lonigan was considered a 'dirty book' when it was written. Typically, it received much attention and mixed reviews. The man who reviewed books for our local Cleveland Plain Dealer despised the book, not because it was dirty (he claims) but because he considered it 'hard boiled sentimentality'. Ten years after Studs Lonigan was published, this same reviewer was still finding reasons to knock it in print! This is a book a reader will either love or loathe. I consider it a counterpart to Atlas Shrugged in this sense...Studs Lonigan is a sprawling work that makes a social/political commentary. In my opinion, the main difference between Atlas and Studs is that James T. Farrell can actually write well while Rand leaves me with a nasty taste in my mouth. (Others will no doubt feel the opposite.)
I loved the book as Terkel did. Farrell's contemporaries received it in mixed fashion. Most agreed that he was a talented writer with a powerful story. Some felt he tried too hard to sensationalize his subjects. One of my favorite review excerpts is from The New Republic, dated 21 March, 1934:
"A distinguished and outstanding contemporary novel. To the American reader who, whether bored or amused,
is not self-conscious about seeing in print the kind of talk that would be bandied about in the Greek's
poolroom, who doesn't have to swallow his naturalism as though he were taking a dose of castor oil, The
Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan is recommended as an absorbing novel, a book of significance, a great
piece of American Realism. One pushes through it with accelerating speed, unable to drop the thing. And
it leaves one shaken."
William "Studs" Lonigan begins life as the favored eldest son of an Irish immigrant who has worked his way up in the trades and become a contract painter and the owner of the building in which the family resides. The parents are a model of immigrant thrift and industry. Though limited in their own education and scope, they have plans for their children and offer them a good home. The sisters take advantage of finishing their high school educations. The same chance is offered to Studs. Studs fritters away his opportunity, ditches school often enough to be expelled and, after a period of loafing, begins to work for his father.
Studs sees himself as many lower class males do. The need to be tough and to wield influence on the street...to boss his pals and to pull as many women as possible motivates him in the immediate here and now. He cannot take a longer view as a young man. He likes money in his pocket and the independence of becoming a 'working man' entitled to his drinking, whoring and carousing as long as the job gets done in the morning. The parents worry but also rationalize his behavior and put their hope in the Catholic Church.
In the first third of the book Studs "has the stuff alright". He is popular with his peers and gets great respect on the street after 'cleaning up' a notorious bully in a fight. He has a fairly grandiose sense of himself and his future. He plans to take over his dad's business and end up well off surrounded by his friends and admirers. Studs dreams big but lacks in the follow-through. Although there are moments of self-doubt, he has a young man's ego.
Studs and his gang are tough guys. They fight and gamble and drink until they fall over in the street. The gangsta wannabees of the past 20 years have nothing on them. Modern youth did not invent partying or promiscuous sex or other forms of risk taking. Studs and his boys visit "can houses" (brothels) Studs loses his virginity in a "gang shag" at age 15 or 16. The girl is game and known in the community for being an eager participant with the right guys. She does, however, refuse her services to a Jewish boy who has somehow gotten in with the Irish gang. This incident fills that somewhat sensitive boy from a bad home with shame and hatred and he leaves the neighborhood afterwards to go 'on the bum'.
(The story of Davey Cohen is one of the many side lines in this Big Read...as we find out what happens to various friends and acquaintances as they grow through life. Davey's experience is particularly moving. And there are some beautiful passages about his inner life.}
So unhappy that he envied a dog! How many times hadn't Davey Cohen, hungry, cold, knowing he was useless
to the world, walked along the streets of strange towns, envying the dogs that people owned, knowing
that the dogs were better fed than he, that some people thought more of them than any human being did of
him. He thought of dusk coming upon the poet on his mattress grave, another day of life robbed from his
twisted body. Outside, in the rain, dusk came too, robbing Davey of another miserable day. He read
and re-read Heine's monologue, and then, other poems. The library closed and the hours had seemed like
minutes.
The contrast between lyric writing and brutish and ugly language is pronounced. Studs and his circle punctuate nearly every paragraph with slurs. The theme of neighborhood change...turf wars between ethnic and socio economic enclaves and migration of groups was huge in the 20th century and still causes social unrest today. In the earlier 1800s the Irish, themselves, were dogs. Now they have advanced in the social pecking order and dole out the same rough treatment they received to the "shines" and "Kikes" and "polacks" and "bohunks" they see edging into their parish.
"I never did like Greeks," Studs said. "Me neither. Like that waiter Christy in the restaurant who was a
Red. They ought to take bastards like him who don't appreciate this country and send them all back on the
first boat. We got too many foreigners here anyway, and that's why there are so many Americans like Stan
and Joe here out of work," Red said oracularly.
{The constant use of "nigger" and "kike" in this story can play on 21st century nerves. It is however, a reminder of how this generation thought and spoke. Studs Lonigan was born at the turn of the 20th century -- the same era as my own grandparents. I recall how the old folks talked when I was a kid. Many still used these terms in a very matter of fact manner.}
Studs has a momentary young romance with a girl named Lucy Scanlan. It is the height of innocence...just a couple of walks and a quick kiss while sitting with her up in the branches of a tree in the neighborhood park. The Park seems to represent a place that is other -- separate from the hum drum streets that surround it. This is the place where couples go to walk and to have privacy for sex. Studs feels strongly for Lucy in ways that he cannot articulate to himself or to others. He is mortified to become the subject of teasing after their brief relationship is exposed. He plays it tough and brushes Lucy aside. She is stung and snubs him henceforth. Studs never gets over Lucy and holds her up as his ideal throughout his life. Yet this is a private pain he shares with no one. His friends would not be sympathetic. In the words of one: "Why are you singin the blues? There's plenty of gash in this world."
Women are broads, janes and bitches--all three terms are employed. They are a source of allure, mystery, confusion and constant frustration to Studs and his friends who see them only in terms of sexual conquest or untouchable ideals. (Sisters and female relatives fall into the second category. Just about every other attractive female falls into the first.) They strive to get their girls drunk enough to 'make' them or 'jazz' them at parties or in the park or apartment hallways. Sometimes they succeed. Other times things take an ugly turn. At an epic New Year's Eve party, as 1929 dawns, the gang goes crazy on Prohibition moonshine and the worst thug of them all violently rapes a girl. This character is Studs' long time rival, Weary Reilley. Reilley goes to the pen for his crimes. Studs falls down drunk in the street after this party and catches pneumonia. This party marks a turning point and an inevitable down fall. Studs sinks into his own abyss of poor health as his family and the rest of the country stagger into the Depression. The Jazz Age is over. The Age of Anxiety has begun.
We are now living in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. The parallels between 1930s society as featured in the pages of this story and our times are interesting. In one scene, Studs and his girl, Catherine, go to a venue to watch a dance marathon. It is a combination of today's extreme sports and reality TV. The various dancers and couples on the circuit have fans and develop personas to play to the crowd. The crowds are extremely partisan and loudly root for their favorite contestants. The marathon is grueling but the winner goes home with the purse. This is the long shot-- perhaps the only way out of hard times is to take a chance on a stunt or a gamble. Gambling is also heavily featured with pool room betting and bookies taking plenty of action. I can't help but think that reality TV and 'fifteen minutes of fame/infamy' -- even Internet memes...have become the 21st century versions of dance marathons and flagpole sitting.
I'll wrap this overly long review with a harrowing passage toward the end of the book. Studs is broken. His dad is on the edge of ruin...both with the business and with the mortgage on the apartment building he owns. Studs has lost his own savings in the stock market. He is, once again, ill. He is walking the streets of Chicago looking for work. His efforts are painful. The reader feels pity...an emotion the character would loathe. The anger and resentment and sense of failure and futility Studs feels burns off the page:
He had a picture in his mind of Studs Lonigan courageously telling life and the world to shove itself
up its old tomato, and let it stick there. He saw himself walking in the rain, wet and tired, with things
crashing down on his head, being screwed at every turn, forced to do something. He saw himself walking
south along State Street in the sloshing rain, past department stores, past attractive windows full of
suits and ties and shirts and dresses and furniture and baseball bats and football suits and feminine
lingerie and refrigerators. Walking past tall buildings full of people at work who didn't have the troubles
Studs Lonigan had. He looked at people on the street, their faces indistinct, and an unquenchable hate
rose up in him, and he wanted to punch and maim and claw them He caught a close up view of a fat male face,
a sleeping contentment in the features. There went another sonofabitch, another sonofabitch who had a job..
Well, the flappers are gone. Prohibition is gone. Short pants and bloomers are gone. Even the Communists who are idealised a bit too much in 1934 are, for the most part, gone. The world changes. But, then again, it does not. The crooked bankers never really went away (just some of the regulations). The grifters and schemers just changed their game every few years and are with us always. The radio hate speakers did not leave either. Studs' "Father Moylan" {probably based on Father Coughlin} has his heirs all over the airwaves today. We laid off booze but created a War on Drugs. Studs and his friends drank home-brewed poison during the 1920s that killed some and permanently injured the health of others. Today the kids cook meth. Same result.
If only we had listened a bit to those old folks. Maybe they could have told us a thing or two about some pitfalls to avoid. But we didn't. Studs Lonigan was just a cranky old senior by the time I was born. (Back when the elderly represented the highest percentage of Americans living in poverty; this generation never really did rebound from Hard Times.} But no. My parent's generation were prosperous and on the move. They left the old neighborhoods...and really did not seem to care much about what happened in them after the fact. The Boomers? This is a group that is almost indecent about not allowing the body of the generation ahead of them to grow cold before shoving them off the stage. They knew better about some things and extrapolated this to mean that they knew better about ALL things.
And my generation? Callous as a rule. Not much feeling for the poor. Too many of us were born lucky and think we did something special. We are an overweight, overly indebted generation who is often crowing about 'personal responsibility'. We are the first generation in America (with the exception of Studs Lonigan and his cohorts perhaps) who, as a rule, are doing worse than our parents. We must somehow face the fact that we may well have less to give our kids than what we were given. We are easy marks for the prosperity gospellers, the diet supplement hawkers and the sub prime mortgage lenders. Looking for a miracle we stagger into middle age with no savings and, often, in debt up too our eyeballs, our prime earning years already behind us. The future was so bright, dude. We were supposed to be wearing shades...And punctured hubris in a flabby body, broken down and past its prime is an ugly thing to witness. It was ugly when Studs Lonigan staggered drunk through the streets of South Chicago coughing up his lungs and it is ugly still.
Studs Lonigan was considered a 'dirty book' when it was written. Typically, it received much attention and mixed reviews. The man who reviewed books for our local Cleveland Plain Dealer despised the book, not because it was dirty (he claims) but because he considered it 'hard boiled sentimentality'. Ten years after Studs Lonigan was published, this same reviewer was still finding reasons to knock it in print! This is a book a reader will either love or loathe. I consider it a counterpart to Atlas Shrugged in this sense...Studs Lonigan is a sprawling work that makes a social/political commentary. In my opinion, the main difference between Atlas and Studs is that James T. Farrell can actually write well while Rand leaves me with a nasty taste in my mouth. (Others will no doubt feel the opposite.)
I loved the book as Terkel did. Farrell's contemporaries received it in mixed fashion. Most agreed that he was a talented writer with a powerful story. Some felt he tried too hard to sensationalize his subjects. One of my favorite review excerpts is from The New Republic, dated 21 March, 1934:
"A distinguished and outstanding contemporary novel. To the American reader who, whether bored or amused,
is not self-conscious about seeing in print the kind of talk that would be bandied about in the Greek's
poolroom, who doesn't have to swallow his naturalism as though he were taking a dose of castor oil, The
Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan is recommended as an absorbing novel, a book of significance, a great
piece of American Realism. One pushes through it with accelerating speed, unable to drop the thing. And
it leaves one shaken."
William "Studs" Lonigan begins life as the favored eldest son of an Irish immigrant who has worked his way up in the trades and become a contract painter and the owner of the building in which the family resides. The parents are a model of immigrant thrift and industry. Though limited in their own education and scope, they have plans for their children and offer them a good home. The sisters take advantage of finishing their high school educations. The same chance is offered to Studs. Studs fritters away his opportunity, ditches school often enough to be expelled and, after a period of loafing, begins to work for his father.
Studs sees himself as many lower class males do. The need to be tough and to wield influence on the street...to boss his pals and to pull as many women as possible motivates him in the immediate here and now. He cannot take a longer view as a young man. He likes money in his pocket and the independence of becoming a 'working man' entitled to his drinking, whoring and carousing as long as the job gets done in the morning. The parents worry but also rationalize his behavior and put their hope in the Catholic Church.
In the first third of the book Studs "has the stuff alright". He is popular with his peers and gets great respect on the street after 'cleaning up' a notorious bully in a fight. He has a fairly grandiose sense of himself and his future. He plans to take over his dad's business and end up well off surrounded by his friends and admirers. Studs dreams big but lacks in the follow-through. Although there are moments of self-doubt, he has a young man's ego.
Studs and his gang are tough guys. They fight and gamble and drink until they fall over in the street. The gangsta wannabees of the past 20 years have nothing on them. Modern youth did not invent partying or promiscuous sex or other forms of risk taking. Studs and his boys visit "can houses" (brothels) Studs loses his virginity in a "gang shag" at age 15 or 16. The girl is game and known in the community for being an eager participant with the right guys. She does, however, refuse her services to a Jewish boy who has somehow gotten in with the Irish gang. This incident fills that somewhat sensitive boy from a bad home with shame and hatred and he leaves the neighborhood afterwards to go 'on the bum'.
(The story of Davey Cohen is one of the many side lines in this Big Read...as we find out what happens to various friends and acquaintances as they grow through life. Davey's experience is particularly moving. And there are some beautiful passages about his inner life.}
So unhappy that he envied a dog! How many times hadn't Davey Cohen, hungry, cold, knowing he was useless
to the world, walked along the streets of strange towns, envying the dogs that people owned, knowing
that the dogs were better fed than he, that some people thought more of them than any human being did of
him. He thought of dusk coming upon the poet on his mattress grave, another day of life robbed from his
twisted body. Outside, in the rain, dusk came too, robbing Davey of another miserable day. He read
and re-read Heine's monologue, and then, other poems. The library closed and the hours had seemed like
minutes.
The contrast between lyric writing and brutish and ugly language is pronounced. Studs and his circle punctuate nearly every paragraph with slurs. The theme of neighborhood change...turf wars between ethnic and socio economic enclaves and migration of groups was huge in the 20th century and still causes social unrest today. In the earlier 1800s the Irish, themselves, were dogs. Now they have advanced in the social pecking order and dole out the same rough treatment they received to the "shines" and "Kikes" and "polacks" and "bohunks" they see edging into their parish.
"I never did like Greeks," Studs said. "Me neither. Like that waiter Christy in the restaurant who was a
Red. They ought to take bastards like him who don't appreciate this country and send them all back on the
first boat. We got too many foreigners here anyway, and that's why there are so many Americans like Stan
and Joe here out of work," Red said oracularly.
{The constant use of "nigger" and "kike" in this story can play on 21st century nerves. It is however, a reminder of how this generation thought and spoke. Studs Lonigan was born at the turn of the 20th century -- the same era as my own grandparents. I recall how the old folks talked when I was a kid. Many still used these terms in a very matter of fact manner.}
Studs has a momentary young romance with a girl named Lucy Scanlan. It is the height of innocence...just a couple of walks and a quick kiss while sitting with her up in the branches of a tree in the neighborhood park. The Park seems to represent a place that is other -- separate from the hum drum streets that surround it. This is the place where couples go to walk and to have privacy for sex. Studs feels strongly for Lucy in ways that he cannot articulate to himself or to others. He is mortified to become the subject of teasing after their brief relationship is exposed. He plays it tough and brushes Lucy aside. She is stung and snubs him henceforth. Studs never gets over Lucy and holds her up as his ideal throughout his life. Yet this is a private pain he shares with no one. His friends would not be sympathetic. In the words of one: "Why are you singin the blues? There's plenty of gash in this world."
Women are broads, janes and bitches--all three terms are employed. They are a source of allure, mystery, confusion and constant frustration to Studs and his friends who see them only in terms of sexual conquest or untouchable ideals. (Sisters and female relatives fall into the second category. Just about every other attractive female falls into the first.) They strive to get their girls drunk enough to 'make' them or 'jazz' them at parties or in the park or apartment hallways. Sometimes they succeed. Other times things take an ugly turn. At an epic New Year's Eve party, as 1929 dawns, the gang goes crazy on Prohibition moonshine and the worst thug of them all violently rapes a girl. This character is Studs' long time rival, Weary Reilley. Reilley goes to the pen for his crimes. Studs falls down drunk in the street after this party and catches pneumonia. This party marks a turning point and an inevitable down fall. Studs sinks into his own abyss of poor health as his family and the rest of the country stagger into the Depression. The Jazz Age is over. The Age of Anxiety has begun.
We are now living in the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. The parallels between 1930s society as featured in the pages of this story and our times are interesting. In one scene, Studs and his girl, Catherine, go to a venue to watch a dance marathon. It is a combination of today's extreme sports and reality TV. The various dancers and couples on the circuit have fans and develop personas to play to the crowd. The crowds are extremely partisan and loudly root for their favorite contestants. The marathon is grueling but the winner goes home with the purse. This is the long shot-- perhaps the only way out of hard times is to take a chance on a stunt or a gamble. Gambling is also heavily featured with pool room betting and bookies taking plenty of action. I can't help but think that reality TV and 'fifteen minutes of fame/infamy' -- even Internet memes...have become the 21st century versions of dance marathons and flagpole sitting.
I'll wrap this overly long review with a harrowing passage toward the end of the book. Studs is broken. His dad is on the edge of ruin...both with the business and with the mortgage on the apartment building he owns. Studs has lost his own savings in the stock market. He is, once again, ill. He is walking the streets of Chicago looking for work. His efforts are painful. The reader feels pity...an emotion the character would loathe. The anger and resentment and sense of failure and futility Studs feels burns off the page:
He had a picture in his mind of Studs Lonigan courageously telling life and the world to shove itself
up its old tomato, and let it stick there. He saw himself walking in the rain, wet and tired, with things
crashing down on his head, being screwed at every turn, forced to do something. He saw himself walking
south along State Street in the sloshing rain, past department stores, past attractive windows full of
suits and ties and shirts and dresses and furniture and baseball bats and football suits and feminine
lingerie and refrigerators. Walking past tall buildings full of people at work who didn't have the troubles
Studs Lonigan had. He looked at people on the street, their faces indistinct, and an unquenchable hate
rose up in him, and he wanted to punch and maim and claw them He caught a close up view of a fat male face,
a sleeping contentment in the features. There went another sonofabitch, another sonofabitch who had a job..
Well, the flappers are gone. Prohibition is gone. Short pants and bloomers are gone. Even the Communists who are idealised a bit too much in 1934 are, for the most part, gone. The world changes. But, then again, it does not. The crooked bankers never really went away (just some of the regulations). The grifters and schemers just changed their game every few years and are with us always. The radio hate speakers did not leave either. Studs' "Father Moylan" {probably based on Father Coughlin} has his heirs all over the airwaves today. We laid off booze but created a War on Drugs. Studs and his friends drank home-brewed poison during the 1920s that killed some and permanently injured the health of others. Today the kids cook meth. Same result.
If only we had listened a bit to those old folks. Maybe they could have told us a thing or two about some pitfalls to avoid. But we didn't. Studs Lonigan was just a cranky old senior by the time I was born. (Back when the elderly represented the highest percentage of Americans living in poverty; this generation never really did rebound from Hard Times.} But no. My parent's generation were prosperous and on the move. They left the old neighborhoods...and really did not seem to care much about what happened in them after the fact. The Boomers? This is a group that is almost indecent about not allowing the body of the generation ahead of them to grow cold before shoving them off the stage. They knew better about some things and extrapolated this to mean that they knew better about ALL things.
And my generation? Callous as a rule. Not much feeling for the poor. Too many of us were born lucky and think we did something special. We are an overweight, overly indebted generation who is often crowing about 'personal responsibility'. We are the first generation in America (with the exception of Studs Lonigan and his cohorts perhaps) who, as a rule, are doing worse than our parents. We must somehow face the fact that we may well have less to give our kids than what we were given. We are easy marks for the prosperity gospellers, the diet supplement hawkers and the sub prime mortgage lenders. Looking for a miracle we stagger into middle age with no savings and, often, in debt up too our eyeballs, our prime earning years already behind us. The future was so bright, dude. We were supposed to be wearing shades...And punctured hubris in a flabby body, broken down and past its prime is an ugly thing to witness. It was ugly when Studs Lonigan staggered drunk through the streets of South Chicago coughing up his lungs and it is ugly still.
June 15, 2022
Poor Studs Lonigan. If there ever existed a fellow who exemplified Thoreau's words about most men living lives of quiet desperation...
This "Trilogy" set in Chicago does not contain the most beautiful language or interesting plot; however, it is slightly profound, in that meandering, 900-page kind of way.
James T. Farrell is an okay writer. He reminds me of a less vulgar, more naturalistic version of Henry Miller. Throughout the book the writing can be boring and tedious, but sometimes he comes up with keen insights into the human psyche. He doesn't shy away from tough subjects, as when a teenage Studs has impure thoughts about his oldest sister after a bath.
Studs grows up thinking Irish Catholics are the real Americans. The other races, mainly Jews and blacks, are inferior. Though his parents are devoutly religious, they pass on bigotry and xenophobia to their children. Studs has two sisters and a younger brother to provide foils for his thoughts and actions.
Studs is pathetic. Unable to break through primitive and foolish ideas of masculinity, he is impetuous and haughty, yet he is a coward. He is more concerned with the impression others have of him than with how he feels about himself. He hardly knows himself. When he involuntarily indulges in reflection, he attempts to push his thoughts away and imagine himself as tough, rather than a silly little sissy who thinks such introspective garbage.
Studs holds on to a few crowning moments. One was a fight in which he stood his ground, and perhaps even "won", against a bigger kid known as a bully. But then, Studs becomes a bully, too.
The other was a kiss in a tree with a young girl, Lucy. He thinks of her till his dying day. Even when he becomes engaged to Catherine, he thinks back on Lucy as his idea of love and the perfect girl.
For all their faults members of the Lonigan Family show tenderness to one another, and they think they've got it right. They have good intentions. They inspire more pity than disdain, despite the shallowness and narrowness of their ideas about the world.
Much is the same in Farrell's writing. It's certainly not captivating, but the book was engaging, and it kept my attention for the most part. Farrell uses a fairly large vocabulary, and even though he picks the proper synonym usually, the sentences often come off a bit clumsily, the way simple sentences that include one obscure word are likely to sound.
There are some nice scenes toward the end depicting some of the protests and hecatombs of the Great Depression. Paddy Lonigan, Studs father, gets a few moments of interior monologue. His ignorance is played with nicely, and the last 30 pages of the book were the best. Farrell wraps it up, and it is more dully depressing than heartbreaking. We knew what was coming.
This "Trilogy" set in Chicago does not contain the most beautiful language or interesting plot; however, it is slightly profound, in that meandering, 900-page kind of way.
James T. Farrell is an okay writer. He reminds me of a less vulgar, more naturalistic version of Henry Miller. Throughout the book the writing can be boring and tedious, but sometimes he comes up with keen insights into the human psyche. He doesn't shy away from tough subjects, as when a teenage Studs has impure thoughts about his oldest sister after a bath.
Studs grows up thinking Irish Catholics are the real Americans. The other races, mainly Jews and blacks, are inferior. Though his parents are devoutly religious, they pass on bigotry and xenophobia to their children. Studs has two sisters and a younger brother to provide foils for his thoughts and actions.
Studs is pathetic. Unable to break through primitive and foolish ideas of masculinity, he is impetuous and haughty, yet he is a coward. He is more concerned with the impression others have of him than with how he feels about himself. He hardly knows himself. When he involuntarily indulges in reflection, he attempts to push his thoughts away and imagine himself as tough, rather than a silly little sissy who thinks such introspective garbage.
Studs holds on to a few crowning moments. One was a fight in which he stood his ground, and perhaps even "won", against a bigger kid known as a bully. But then, Studs becomes a bully, too.
The other was a kiss in a tree with a young girl, Lucy. He thinks of her till his dying day. Even when he becomes engaged to Catherine, he thinks back on Lucy as his idea of love and the perfect girl.
For all their faults members of the Lonigan Family show tenderness to one another, and they think they've got it right. They have good intentions. They inspire more pity than disdain, despite the shallowness and narrowness of their ideas about the world.
Much is the same in Farrell's writing. It's certainly not captivating, but the book was engaging, and it kept my attention for the most part. Farrell uses a fairly large vocabulary, and even though he picks the proper synonym usually, the sentences often come off a bit clumsily, the way simple sentences that include one obscure word are likely to sound.
There are some nice scenes toward the end depicting some of the protests and hecatombs of the Great Depression. Paddy Lonigan, Studs father, gets a few moments of interior monologue. His ignorance is played with nicely, and the last 30 pages of the book were the best. Farrell wraps it up, and it is more dully depressing than heartbreaking. We knew what was coming.
August 5, 2012
If you're looking to be thoroughly depressed by the actions (and inactions) of an Irish-American loser, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, you should wait until I publish my own autobiography. Thank you.
October 7, 2019
Young Lonigan
A good read and complement to similar historical context books of the era such as John Dos Passos, USA trilogy. Gives another and more personal perspective of the same. years. Studs isn't your hero
type, he's presented with all his goods & bads.
In 1916 he graduates from what we'd call Junior High. His parents are proud that they sacrificed to put him & his sister through Catholic school for a good education. Studs though hasn't learned much and like his friends they all feel they barely survived the Nuns. I found this hilarious as that's what all my college roommates said about their Catholic schooling. Some things don't change.
The author depicts a world where each street is a neighborhood and those a world to their own, that of turf wars and petty crime, standard young man mischief as Stus wrestles with his teenage angst.
Young Manhood
Studs moves from young ruffian to seeing the light, maturing and joining his father's painting business. Interesting background events are the signs of African-Americans moving into South Chicago, the Jews are blamed for financial ills and the Irish Catholics stick together at least in their hatred of other groups.
Bootleg Gin, sex and the risk of venereal disease are also subjects, I imagine it was 'racy' for a 1930s novel. The VD troubles many of the guys and some die from it.
The Final Judgement
With that ominous title starts the Depression and Studs being sickly from drinking. Eerie predictions and observations on the stock market, which match today's (2002) finances. Everyone thinking, hoping things will get better soon.
Fascinating cultural events - grapefruit diets are big. Studs & girlfriend go to a Dance Marathon. Fun insight into that phenomena. Everyone thinks it's silly, but they watch addicted like a soap opera,
or mmm American Idol. (Watch the movie 'They Shoot Horses Don't They')
Fraternal orders are also big, such as something like the Elks, Lions, Masons, etc. Their boom in enrollment is a sign of the times, people bonding through organizations when financial times are tough, a way of what we call networking, feeling a brotherhood.
A good read and complement to similar historical context books of the era such as John Dos Passos, USA trilogy. Gives another and more personal perspective of the same. years. Studs isn't your hero
type, he's presented with all his goods & bads.
In 1916 he graduates from what we'd call Junior High. His parents are proud that they sacrificed to put him & his sister through Catholic school for a good education. Studs though hasn't learned much and like his friends they all feel they barely survived the Nuns. I found this hilarious as that's what all my college roommates said about their Catholic schooling. Some things don't change.
The author depicts a world where each street is a neighborhood and those a world to their own, that of turf wars and petty crime, standard young man mischief as Stus wrestles with his teenage angst.
Young Manhood
Studs moves from young ruffian to seeing the light, maturing and joining his father's painting business. Interesting background events are the signs of African-Americans moving into South Chicago, the Jews are blamed for financial ills and the Irish Catholics stick together at least in their hatred of other groups.
Bootleg Gin, sex and the risk of venereal disease are also subjects, I imagine it was 'racy' for a 1930s novel. The VD troubles many of the guys and some die from it.
The Final Judgement
With that ominous title starts the Depression and Studs being sickly from drinking. Eerie predictions and observations on the stock market, which match today's (2002) finances. Everyone thinking, hoping things will get better soon.
Fascinating cultural events - grapefruit diets are big. Studs & girlfriend go to a Dance Marathon. Fun insight into that phenomena. Everyone thinks it's silly, but they watch addicted like a soap opera,
or mmm American Idol. (Watch the movie 'They Shoot Horses Don't They')
Fraternal orders are also big, such as something like the Elks, Lions, Masons, etc. Their boom in enrollment is a sign of the times, people bonding through organizations when financial times are tough, a way of what we call networking, feeling a brotherhood.
November 16, 2016
Meet the Deplorables.
Studs Lonigan is a racist, misogynist, willfully ignorant, aimlessly angry, irresponsible, untrustworthy, belligerent, self-centered, bully. He's the hero of this story, and is generally sympathetic. Don't get me wrong, he's a horrible human being... whether he's beating up littler kids in the first book, unconscionably spreading venereal disease in the second, or failing to take responsibility for the mess of his life in the third, this is someone you have to be a little bit ashamed to identify with. That's even before you take into account the overt racism and hatred of the other that permeates every aspect of his life.
Yet, it's hard to read this and not sympathize with Studs. He wants to be a good (read: strong) man, but with little understanding of what that would mean, he ends up a slob. He wants to be close to women, but without an understanding of how to have a healthy relationship he fantasizes alternately about rape and heroics. He wants to be admired, but lacking discipline and empathy, he ends up a bully and a sap.
This may be why some people have a visceral reaction against this book. Here's a horrible human being who you have to understand, and kinda sorta have to like. Studs may be more relevant today than at any time since he was written. He hopes for an American Mussolini who will rise to power and attack his enemies, crack down on the blacks and jews, stand up to the bankers and sissies, and clear the path so that men could be real men. Studs would be fully dedicated to making America great again, if he was capable of being fully dedicated to anything other than his own misery.
Studs Lonigan is a racist, misogynist, willfully ignorant, aimlessly angry, irresponsible, untrustworthy, belligerent, self-centered, bully. He's the hero of this story, and is generally sympathetic. Don't get me wrong, he's a horrible human being... whether he's beating up littler kids in the first book, unconscionably spreading venereal disease in the second, or failing to take responsibility for the mess of his life in the third, this is someone you have to be a little bit ashamed to identify with. That's even before you take into account the overt racism and hatred of the other that permeates every aspect of his life.
Yet, it's hard to read this and not sympathize with Studs. He wants to be a good (read: strong) man, but with little understanding of what that would mean, he ends up a slob. He wants to be close to women, but without an understanding of how to have a healthy relationship he fantasizes alternately about rape and heroics. He wants to be admired, but lacking discipline and empathy, he ends up a bully and a sap.
This may be why some people have a visceral reaction against this book. Here's a horrible human being who you have to understand, and kinda sorta have to like. Studs may be more relevant today than at any time since he was written. He hopes for an American Mussolini who will rise to power and attack his enemies, crack down on the blacks and jews, stand up to the bankers and sissies, and clear the path so that men could be real men. Studs would be fully dedicated to making America great again, if he was capable of being fully dedicated to anything other than his own misery.
November 17, 2019
At 961 pages, this three-part trilogy actually had me wanting more. If I had to compare it to anything, it is like Trainspotting set in '20s/30s Chicago. (substitute heroin for bathtub gin and substitute Begbie for Weary Reilly).
The novel follows the title character, a first generation Irish Catholic wannabe tough guy, from 7th grade through the opening years of the Great Depression. Unlike his parents who were born in Ireland, Studs' upbringing was middle class and many of his acquaintances continued on to college. Although Studs is encouraged to continue at least through high school, he drops out to work for his father, a well-to-do painting contractor. Part two of the series is where things really picked up for me (it begins with an Armistice Day celebration in the Loop which resembled the Hollywood Premier scene in Day of the Locust); it ends on New Year's Eve 1929, a blow-out that certainly does not look tame by today's standards. The 1920s depicted here is not the fun and frivolous Jazz Age we all know and love. Some reviewers here advocate going straight for the third book in the trilogy "Judgement Day" (which may be the best in the series). However, to ignore the first two installments would be to miss too much backstory.
Without a doubt, this may rank as one of the most depressing stories I have ever read (the main character never left Chicago, except to go to a funeral in Terre Haute Indiana, and he rarely left his neighborhood). There are, however, some amusing moments in that it is funny evesdropping on a bunch of knuckleheads in a pool room as they address each other with politically incorrect epithets and pun on reading dirty books by Balzac (no explanation necessary). It's interesting because those same guys today would never read a book at all much less the classics. Maybe it is just me, but I really got caught up in the gossip and stories of the various people who drifted in and out of the scene and started to feel like I knew them.
Needless to say, this is not a book for people who insist on a sensational plot. Nor is it for people who enjoy reading about Unicorns and Rainbows. But if you like gritty reality, and know (or know of) people like this, it will look like a documentary by the Maysles.
The novel follows the title character, a first generation Irish Catholic wannabe tough guy, from 7th grade through the opening years of the Great Depression. Unlike his parents who were born in Ireland, Studs' upbringing was middle class and many of his acquaintances continued on to college. Although Studs is encouraged to continue at least through high school, he drops out to work for his father, a well-to-do painting contractor. Part two of the series is where things really picked up for me (it begins with an Armistice Day celebration in the Loop which resembled the Hollywood Premier scene in Day of the Locust); it ends on New Year's Eve 1929, a blow-out that certainly does not look tame by today's standards. The 1920s depicted here is not the fun and frivolous Jazz Age we all know and love. Some reviewers here advocate going straight for the third book in the trilogy "Judgement Day" (which may be the best in the series). However, to ignore the first two installments would be to miss too much backstory.
Without a doubt, this may rank as one of the most depressing stories I have ever read (the main character never left Chicago, except to go to a funeral in Terre Haute Indiana, and he rarely left his neighborhood). There are, however, some amusing moments in that it is funny evesdropping on a bunch of knuckleheads in a pool room as they address each other with politically incorrect epithets and pun on reading dirty books by Balzac (no explanation necessary). It's interesting because those same guys today would never read a book at all much less the classics. Maybe it is just me, but I really got caught up in the gossip and stories of the various people who drifted in and out of the scene and started to feel like I knew them.
Needless to say, this is not a book for people who insist on a sensational plot. Nor is it for people who enjoy reading about Unicorns and Rainbows. But if you like gritty reality, and know (or know of) people like this, it will look like a documentary by the Maysles.
October 17, 2008
Meh. Coming from Chicago(-ish), the setting and historical context of this book were interesting. And it was well written. But the main character, Studs, was kind of annoying. And self-centered. And mean. This may be an effective portrait of the slightly threatened, racist, misogynistic white American male in the first half of the 20th century, but, gosh darn it, do you know how many portraits of the slightly threatened, racist, misogynistic white American male in the first half of the 20th century there are? I'm a little burned out. I should probably stop reading them.
Seriously, however, just as our beloved (or not so beloved) Studs begins to show that he has the cognitive and emotional capacity to be a well-developed, compassionate, responsible human being, instead of merely a sociopathic bully and wannabe date rapist, the book ends. It's all very discouraging and depressing. But maybe that's what the author was going for?
I do have to give the editors props for using the word "Comprising" in the title. "Comprising" is an awesome word.
Seriously, however, just as our beloved (or not so beloved) Studs begins to show that he has the cognitive and emotional capacity to be a well-developed, compassionate, responsible human being, instead of merely a sociopathic bully and wannabe date rapist, the book ends. It's all very discouraging and depressing. But maybe that's what the author was going for?
I do have to give the editors props for using the word "Comprising" in the title. "Comprising" is an awesome word.
Read
December 3, 2018It's funny. 900 pages later, I don't know how I feel about Studs Lonigan. On one hand, he's the sort of guy I would have routinely made fun of at the bar in the years after high school, the sort of chump who is still stuck in his hometown -- nowadays he wouldn't be a high school dropout, he'd have barely passed a business degree in undergrad -- still camped out at the same bars he used to get into with fake IDs, still catcalling women while failing to get laid, blaming the blacks and Jews for the world's problems -- hell, even my version of "that guy" probably no longer even has the dignity to prop up a barstool, his slightly younger variant is probably extremely online now.
On the other hand, despite the fact that he is such a fucking repugnant rat, his humanity weirdly shines through. It's a neat trick, something Scorsese was able to employ in Raging Bull, where you have a deeply unlikable character that you still feel for by the end. Especially, in Studs Lonigan's case, seeing as how no one in his world is really very likable either.
On the other hand, despite the fact that he is such a fucking repugnant rat, his humanity weirdly shines through. It's a neat trick, something Scorsese was able to employ in Raging Bull, where you have a deeply unlikable character that you still feel for by the end. Especially, in Studs Lonigan's case, seeing as how no one in his world is really very likable either.
April 30, 2025
Studs Lonigan is a novel about a young man from an Irish family in Chicago. He grows up in the days of World War One, becomes a working man in the Roaring Twenties, and dies lost and broken and unemployed in the depths of the Great Depression.
What author James T. Farrell does is to put you into the mind and body of this youth, this boy, this searching young man, this dying lonely victim, as every dream and hope he has ever had is systematically poisoned by the corruption and brutality of the world around him.
For Studs is Irish, and his community is a suffocating tomb, a closed in overheated green house of religious hatreds, musty racial prejudice, stifling stagnant sexual repression, and above all an unreasoning hostility towards new ideas and new feelings. Studs feels that to be a man he must treat women violently and brutally, expressing his desires without tenderness or gentleness. Studs feels that to hold on to his place in the neighborhood he must keep others out, particularly blacks from the South and Jews from Eastern Europe. Studs feels that as a Catholic he must guard against every human feeling that may lead to sin, or even to curiosity about other ways of living and feeling.
James T. Farrell is merciless in exposing the weaknesses in Studs Lonigan. His body is strong, his mind is adequate, but because of his Catholic upbringing he is unable to think for himself, to question, or to grow. At every point the moral leaders in his community are exposed as hypocrites, liars, cowards, and fools. The Irish priests are as brutal and dishonest as the Irish cops and politicians who run the neighborhood. They exploit Studs, use him as cannon fodder in the undeclared race wars of Chicago, then discard him when he is weak and sick and broken and dying. Studs dies visualizing the horrors awaiting him in hell, feeling cursed and sinful yet at the same time hating the so-called leaders of his so-called religion that has resulted only in his slow extinction as a human spirit.
James T. Farrell is not a great writer. His prose is flat and monotonous, stating the same facts over and over in a way that expresses both his own rebellion and a deep feeling of anger at the waste of life that is Studs Lonigan. Farrell's work only matters because it reveals truths that were banned by the Catholic church, truths that even today so called "liberal" Catholic writers like Mary Gordon, Pete Hamill, Kevin Baker, Timothy Egan, Gail Collins and Anna Quindlen seek to suppress, distort, or deny. They all see the truth in this novel, the truth no amount of clumsy prose or pedestrian dialogue or monotonous descriptions can hide. Deep in their souls they too are a boy named Studs Lonigan.
What author James T. Farrell does is to put you into the mind and body of this youth, this boy, this searching young man, this dying lonely victim, as every dream and hope he has ever had is systematically poisoned by the corruption and brutality of the world around him.
For Studs is Irish, and his community is a suffocating tomb, a closed in overheated green house of religious hatreds, musty racial prejudice, stifling stagnant sexual repression, and above all an unreasoning hostility towards new ideas and new feelings. Studs feels that to be a man he must treat women violently and brutally, expressing his desires without tenderness or gentleness. Studs feels that to hold on to his place in the neighborhood he must keep others out, particularly blacks from the South and Jews from Eastern Europe. Studs feels that as a Catholic he must guard against every human feeling that may lead to sin, or even to curiosity about other ways of living and feeling.
James T. Farrell is merciless in exposing the weaknesses in Studs Lonigan. His body is strong, his mind is adequate, but because of his Catholic upbringing he is unable to think for himself, to question, or to grow. At every point the moral leaders in his community are exposed as hypocrites, liars, cowards, and fools. The Irish priests are as brutal and dishonest as the Irish cops and politicians who run the neighborhood. They exploit Studs, use him as cannon fodder in the undeclared race wars of Chicago, then discard him when he is weak and sick and broken and dying. Studs dies visualizing the horrors awaiting him in hell, feeling cursed and sinful yet at the same time hating the so-called leaders of his so-called religion that has resulted only in his slow extinction as a human spirit.
James T. Farrell is not a great writer. His prose is flat and monotonous, stating the same facts over and over in a way that expresses both his own rebellion and a deep feeling of anger at the waste of life that is Studs Lonigan. Farrell's work only matters because it reveals truths that were banned by the Catholic church, truths that even today so called "liberal" Catholic writers like Mary Gordon, Pete Hamill, Kevin Baker, Timothy Egan, Gail Collins and Anna Quindlen seek to suppress, distort, or deny. They all see the truth in this novel, the truth no amount of clumsy prose or pedestrian dialogue or monotonous descriptions can hide. Deep in their souls they too are a boy named Studs Lonigan.
May 17, 2019
Studs Lonigan just lost a star, because, in rereading it, I found it rather flat. I still think it is a worthy--great, even--piece of American literature, but there is too much telling, not enough indistinctness. In reading Farrell's introduction, in which he states that his original intention was to portray youths without any spiritual grounding or true moral compass, I realize that the book is ahead of its time, as fiction that portrays dangerous, soulless youth plaguing American society is a sub genre of its own. So that's awesome.
November 25, 2012
Studs Lonigan (Young Lonigan, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Judgment Day)
James T. Farrell (1932,1934,1935) #29
May 16, 2009
This has to be the most offensive series of books that I have ever read. The racial insensitivity just kills me. Usually I get fed up with today’s double standards of “Racial Sensitivity”, and those who know me know that I am not a big fan of Political Correctness in general, but come on. I realize that this was the early thirties, but how a book like Slaughterhouse Five could be banned, and a book like this praised as art is beyond me.
This is the story of Studs Lonigan – an Irish Catholic kid growing up in Chicago. I just thought the kids of today were little punks. I have never run across such a detestable protagonist. This story is supposed to show the degradation of a lad trapped and beaten down by the great depression. As far as I’m concerned, Studs Lonigan was, from the beginning, a lowlife scumbag of a human that could never focus on anything but getting drunk and getting into trouble. He struggles later on in the story to get healthier and clean himself up, then ends up knocking up his girlfriend (whom he apparently doesn’t even respect), catching pneumonia doing the only noble thing he does in the book – trying to find a job to support his wife and child to be – then dying. Boo freaking hoo.
The book itself is not that badly written, but it doesn’t seem to be written all that well either. So I guess I’ll give it a few points for some technical merit, but that’s about it. So it comes down to this being a book being written in a forgettable style with a cast of common characters and a terrible plot line.
Not real good to begin with, then throw in the awful racism of this book, and this one turns into a bomber.
2.2
N,J,A,T
James T. Farrell (1932,1934,1935) #29
May 16, 2009
This has to be the most offensive series of books that I have ever read. The racial insensitivity just kills me. Usually I get fed up with today’s double standards of “Racial Sensitivity”, and those who know me know that I am not a big fan of Political Correctness in general, but come on. I realize that this was the early thirties, but how a book like Slaughterhouse Five could be banned, and a book like this praised as art is beyond me.
This is the story of Studs Lonigan – an Irish Catholic kid growing up in Chicago. I just thought the kids of today were little punks. I have never run across such a detestable protagonist. This story is supposed to show the degradation of a lad trapped and beaten down by the great depression. As far as I’m concerned, Studs Lonigan was, from the beginning, a lowlife scumbag of a human that could never focus on anything but getting drunk and getting into trouble. He struggles later on in the story to get healthier and clean himself up, then ends up knocking up his girlfriend (whom he apparently doesn’t even respect), catching pneumonia doing the only noble thing he does in the book – trying to find a job to support his wife and child to be – then dying. Boo freaking hoo.
The book itself is not that badly written, but it doesn’t seem to be written all that well either. So I guess I’ll give it a few points for some technical merit, but that’s about it. So it comes down to this being a book being written in a forgettable style with a cast of common characters and a terrible plot line.
Not real good to begin with, then throw in the awful racism of this book, and this one turns into a bomber.
2.2
N,J,A,T
July 26, 2018
Not for the politically correct, even though the language and situations ring true for the time. Like Mark Twain, James T. Farrell uses salty language to make the dialogue realistic while not exactly condoning it.
The story of Studs Lonigan, a working class Irish Catholic in Chicago, highlights his life from graduating grade school (7th grade equivalent)in 1916 to his engagement in 1930. A lot happens in those years, over 900 pages worth, and we experience it all through Studs' eyes and inner monologue. Despite his bigotry, tough guy attitude and selfishness, we sort of root for Studs because we are privy to his thoughts which are often at odds with his actions. To use TVs "All in the Family" as a touchstone, it is like "meathead" Mike Stivic writing about Archie Bunker's youth as he imagined it to be. James Farrell gives us an average working Joe but let's us believe that the guy is capable of deep and poetic thoughts. Studs is just incapable of expressing them or acting on them for fear of being thought of as "goofy." Whenever he fails, Studs blames others. Whenever he has the smallest victory, it is inflated in his mind to epic proportions. All the while he is reflecting on nature, life, death and purpose.
Yes, Farrell had a socialist agenda. He shows us capitalism's failures and paints the "Bolsheviks"as poor but happy while those who struggle to make a buck are frustrated, angry and morose. It resonates now as a comment on Trump's America. One can only hope that this time history doesn't repeat and the world can be saved from war and Depression, though the Studs of the world keep supporting the unsupportable.
The story of Studs Lonigan, a working class Irish Catholic in Chicago, highlights his life from graduating grade school (7th grade equivalent)in 1916 to his engagement in 1930. A lot happens in those years, over 900 pages worth, and we experience it all through Studs' eyes and inner monologue. Despite his bigotry, tough guy attitude and selfishness, we sort of root for Studs because we are privy to his thoughts which are often at odds with his actions. To use TVs "All in the Family" as a touchstone, it is like "meathead" Mike Stivic writing about Archie Bunker's youth as he imagined it to be. James Farrell gives us an average working Joe but let's us believe that the guy is capable of deep and poetic thoughts. Studs is just incapable of expressing them or acting on them for fear of being thought of as "goofy." Whenever he fails, Studs blames others. Whenever he has the smallest victory, it is inflated in his mind to epic proportions. All the while he is reflecting on nature, life, death and purpose.
Yes, Farrell had a socialist agenda. He shows us capitalism's failures and paints the "Bolsheviks"as poor but happy while those who struggle to make a buck are frustrated, angry and morose. It resonates now as a comment on Trump's America. One can only hope that this time history doesn't repeat and the world can be saved from war and Depression, though the Studs of the world keep supporting the unsupportable.
August 20, 2022
Don't let the straightforward style fool you, this is a difficult novel. It's not the style though, it's more the scope and content. Any readers particularly squeamish about a lot of racism, ethnic bigotry, sexism, and homophobia are advised to stay away, because the words "nigger" and "kike" are not used sparingly or glibly. I will admit that I was frustrated and sick of this book for a large percentage of it, but I know that the end effect would not have been the same if I didn't read it all. But it takes a brave reader to get there. I think one of the most frustrating things about this book is how the titular Studs never seems to learn anything, change, or even consider his situation in a really intelligent level throughout the whole proceedings. It can be frustrating because it makes him hard to identify with. He really seems like an unusually thick individual. But in a lot of ways, this is what makes the book so powerful. It's about a young dreamer who refuses to change and is, in turned, crushed by a world that can't make room for someone so resistant to the serious.
The Penguin edition has a great epilogue which wasn't published with the book before and only recovered a number of years after its initial run. I admit that I only skimmed through it this time because I was MORE than ready to put this book aside, but it's really incredibly written. I need to re-read the epilogue with greater attention next time (not ashamed to admit that I'll probably never read this book again though…).
The Penguin edition has a great epilogue which wasn't published with the book before and only recovered a number of years after its initial run. I admit that I only skimmed through it this time because I was MORE than ready to put this book aside, but it's really incredibly written. I need to re-read the epilogue with greater attention next time (not ashamed to admit that I'll probably never read this book again though…).
January 11, 2011
Another triple header has put me a tad behind schedule, but I just gotta say that this one was out, and I mean way out, of the park. I must humbly acknowledge that I had never heard of James T. Farrell and what continually burst from my lips while reading this magnificent saga was “genius”. Farrell’s work is quite extensive and I will certainly be meeting up with him again after I complete this 100 book journey.
The Studs Lonigan trilogy is comprised of Young Lonigan (1932), The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934) and Judgment Day (1935). The trilogy not only covers major events in US history, but also a range of social topics; syphilis and TB, class struggles and racism, prohibition and alcoholism, homosexuality and sexual repression.
In the first novel, Farrell takes us to Chicago’s south side at the end of WWII where we meet the 15-year-old Studs Lonigan as he grapples with young manhood. The second novel follows up with Studs falling in with a group of hooligans who call a poolroom their second home and consume alcohol beyond excess. The trilogy concludes with Studs nearing 30, reflecting back on his life’s decisions, contemplating marriage and facing serious health issues while the Great Depression rears its ugly head.
Studs Lonigan is a punk, the kind of kid most people would say should be kicked in the pants. He drinks, he curses, he bullies friends and foes and considers women either angels or whores, not allowing for anything in between. So how can such a character warrant the readers compassion? Simply said, he is everyman; he struggles with finding the right words in various relationships, he gloats when he perceives himself admirable, he envies others glory and questions every decision he makes, and then beats himself up for being such a mope. Studs is the man you’d love to slap, but realize an embrace would be his deliverance.
The hardworking father of Studs, Patrick Lonigan, aka Paddy, is an easily liked character. Even as he utters one racial slur after another, you realize he is repeating words in a rote manner and is what he likely heard expressed by his own father. He believes if he works hard, supports his family and goes to church, all will be well even as the Depression closes in on him. He has buried his head in the sand and is in denial about the country’s state of affairs as well as the receding life of his eldest son.
Weary Riley is the punk of punks and makes Studs look like a boy scout in comparison. He is boiling up with anger and wants to take on the world with his fists and is not ashamed to use them on men or women. As young boys, Studs and Weary go at it, with Studs the victor, but Studs believes Weary will get his comeuppance and he surely does, in a shameless way with resulting ruin.
Quotes*:
He puffed. It was nice sitting there. He would like to sit there, and watch it slowly get dark, because when it was just getting dark things were quiet and soft-like, and a fellow liked to sit in all the quiet and well, just sit, and let any old thoughts go through his mind; just sit and dream, and realize that life was a funny thing, but that he’d fought his way up to a station where there weren’t no real serious problems like poverty, and he sits there, and is comfortable and content and patient, because he knows that he has put this shoulder to the wheel, and he has been a good Catholic, and a good American, a good father, and a good husband.
A bird cooed above them. He usually thought it was sissified to listen or pay attention to such things as birds singing; it was crazy, like being a guy who studied music, or read too many books, or wrote poems and painted pictures. But now he listened; it was nice; he told himself how nice it was.
He had been sold out, and made the goat. Most of the other waiters had crawled back on heir knees, begging for their jobs at any salary, under any condition. Yellow scabs! They had betrayed him, betrayed the cause of the American working man. They had betrayed themselves. The rankling of defeat and disappointment grew upon him until her cursed, using the filthiest words he knew.
He could see the lagoon, steely, dark, glittering here and there with the moon and stars. The World, the night, the park, spring that was going to come, it was all new. He felt as if he were discovering them for the first time in his life, as if the sense of budding things, of leaves coming out on the branches, the gradual warming and laziness in the air, the grass bursting green through the cold, hard, wintry earth, as if all these were inside of him.
The car clattered over a small stone bridge, affording him momentary sight of a thing stream of steely-colored water. The engine emitted a piercing and desolate whistle that seemed to puncture the countryside with echoing loneliness, and he was reminded of how, as a young kid, he head heard train whistles at night, even ducking his head under the covers because of them.
*In gathering up quotes I had marked while reading, I realized that on their own, they may not seem quite so profound, however, the voices that emitted their words delivered them in such a way that cannot be easily conveyed as mere quotes. Given that, I decided to note them here anyway.
Since you can probably imagine my drooling over Mr. Farrell, it must then be understood that I’d be more than thrilled to meet him. For some reason, I don’t imagine he’d be thrilled talking with a dame, so I’d disguise myself as a man, maybe do some sparring and then get a little tight before we sat down to business, and I believe it would be a lengthy and fascinating discussion. Farrell had a keen talent for portraying the darkness found in all of us; pettiness, jealousy, doubt and fear. Its an ability that would sure be swell to have.
My rating for The Studs Lonigan Triology is a 10 out of 10.
The Studs Lonigan trilogy is comprised of Young Lonigan (1932), The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (1934) and Judgment Day (1935). The trilogy not only covers major events in US history, but also a range of social topics; syphilis and TB, class struggles and racism, prohibition and alcoholism, homosexuality and sexual repression.
In the first novel, Farrell takes us to Chicago’s south side at the end of WWII where we meet the 15-year-old Studs Lonigan as he grapples with young manhood. The second novel follows up with Studs falling in with a group of hooligans who call a poolroom their second home and consume alcohol beyond excess. The trilogy concludes with Studs nearing 30, reflecting back on his life’s decisions, contemplating marriage and facing serious health issues while the Great Depression rears its ugly head.
Studs Lonigan is a punk, the kind of kid most people would say should be kicked in the pants. He drinks, he curses, he bullies friends and foes and considers women either angels or whores, not allowing for anything in between. So how can such a character warrant the readers compassion? Simply said, he is everyman; he struggles with finding the right words in various relationships, he gloats when he perceives himself admirable, he envies others glory and questions every decision he makes, and then beats himself up for being such a mope. Studs is the man you’d love to slap, but realize an embrace would be his deliverance.
The hardworking father of Studs, Patrick Lonigan, aka Paddy, is an easily liked character. Even as he utters one racial slur after another, you realize he is repeating words in a rote manner and is what he likely heard expressed by his own father. He believes if he works hard, supports his family and goes to church, all will be well even as the Depression closes in on him. He has buried his head in the sand and is in denial about the country’s state of affairs as well as the receding life of his eldest son.
Weary Riley is the punk of punks and makes Studs look like a boy scout in comparison. He is boiling up with anger and wants to take on the world with his fists and is not ashamed to use them on men or women. As young boys, Studs and Weary go at it, with Studs the victor, but Studs believes Weary will get his comeuppance and he surely does, in a shameless way with resulting ruin.
Quotes*:
He puffed. It was nice sitting there. He would like to sit there, and watch it slowly get dark, because when it was just getting dark things were quiet and soft-like, and a fellow liked to sit in all the quiet and well, just sit, and let any old thoughts go through his mind; just sit and dream, and realize that life was a funny thing, but that he’d fought his way up to a station where there weren’t no real serious problems like poverty, and he sits there, and is comfortable and content and patient, because he knows that he has put this shoulder to the wheel, and he has been a good Catholic, and a good American, a good father, and a good husband.
A bird cooed above them. He usually thought it was sissified to listen or pay attention to such things as birds singing; it was crazy, like being a guy who studied music, or read too many books, or wrote poems and painted pictures. But now he listened; it was nice; he told himself how nice it was.
He had been sold out, and made the goat. Most of the other waiters had crawled back on heir knees, begging for their jobs at any salary, under any condition. Yellow scabs! They had betrayed him, betrayed the cause of the American working man. They had betrayed themselves. The rankling of defeat and disappointment grew upon him until her cursed, using the filthiest words he knew.
He could see the lagoon, steely, dark, glittering here and there with the moon and stars. The World, the night, the park, spring that was going to come, it was all new. He felt as if he were discovering them for the first time in his life, as if the sense of budding things, of leaves coming out on the branches, the gradual warming and laziness in the air, the grass bursting green through the cold, hard, wintry earth, as if all these were inside of him.
The car clattered over a small stone bridge, affording him momentary sight of a thing stream of steely-colored water. The engine emitted a piercing and desolate whistle that seemed to puncture the countryside with echoing loneliness, and he was reminded of how, as a young kid, he head heard train whistles at night, even ducking his head under the covers because of them.
*In gathering up quotes I had marked while reading, I realized that on their own, they may not seem quite so profound, however, the voices that emitted their words delivered them in such a way that cannot be easily conveyed as mere quotes. Given that, I decided to note them here anyway.
Since you can probably imagine my drooling over Mr. Farrell, it must then be understood that I’d be more than thrilled to meet him. For some reason, I don’t imagine he’d be thrilled talking with a dame, so I’d disguise myself as a man, maybe do some sparring and then get a little tight before we sat down to business, and I believe it would be a lengthy and fascinating discussion. Farrell had a keen talent for portraying the darkness found in all of us; pettiness, jealousy, doubt and fear. Its an ability that would sure be swell to have.
My rating for The Studs Lonigan Triology is a 10 out of 10.
July 1, 2016
This is a book I had never even heard of before... and I loved it! After reading this book, I feel like I too spent a childhood in a working-class Catholic Irish-American family in Chicago during the 1920's and 1930's.
Let me clarify: not a lot happens in this book. Bill ("Studs" to everyone except his parents) grows up, drops out of school because he doesn't see the point, has a girlfriend named Lucy for like one afternoon and then spends the rest of his short life alternating between fantasizing about her perfection and wanting to screw ("jazz" or "make" as he puts it) practically every woman he meets, works for his dad painting houses until the economy goes bust, drinks too much, ruins his health, knocks up the only other girlfriend he's ever managed to get (the sort-of-unattractive but totally devoted Catherine) and feels forced into marrying her, and, eventually, dies of pneumonia. There's really nothing remarkable about Studs at all. The highlights of his life, at least in his mind, were that afternoon with Lucy and the time he kicked the local bully's ass as a kid. He never achieves anything more than that. He spends his life alternating between feeling like something exciting is about to happen and hating himself for not really accomplishing anything. He alternates between blaming the world for his bad luck and being furious at himself for the bad choices he made. In other words, he is totally, completely, convincingly human.
This is a book about the human condition, but the city of Chicago in the Great Depression years is as much a character in the book as Studs is. There's always an elevated train rattling by or a Chicago blizzard or miserable Chicago rain going on. The novel is like a time-lapse of Studs's nice neighborhood being ruined by black people. Don't read this book if you can't tolerate depictions of historical racism. "Prejudice" doesn't even cover it. Everyone in this book throws around the n-word shamelessly, as well as some other names I'd never even heard of: "shine", "eight-ball." It's fascinating -- a clear and unself-conscious look into what life was like by then, in a time where it was okay to talk and think that way. Studs and especially his father blame the Negroes for ruining the neighborhood and the "international Jew bankers" for causing the Depression and the Poles and Hunkies for taking jobs away from Americans.
The only people who really come out winners in this book are Studs's two sisters, who both ended up married to respectable businessmen. Studs's parents are ruined, by bank failures and the death of their son. (And you kind of know they will be from the beginning. Early on, they talk about their dreams of going to Ireland for a vacation once Studs can take over the business from his father, and you just KNOW that's never going to happen.) Studs makes a really dumb investment and watches his stock go down, down, down, the whole time holding out hope that it will rebound when you KNOW it won't. Studs's poor fiancee Catherine is left pregnant with a baby and with the knowledge that Studs's mother blames her for his death. (If he hadn't needed to find a job to support the baby, he wouldn't have caught pneumonia walking around out in the rain! Studs's sisters call the mother on her bullshit, pointing out that Studs shares some of the blame, which the mother takes as an unbelievable insult to her dying son.) Out of the kids Studs used to run around with in the old neighborhood, a large number of them die over the course of the book, causing Studs to have a building obsession with his own health and the possibility of an early death. All in all, it's a fairly depressing book. But I loved it because it was REAL.
Let me clarify: not a lot happens in this book. Bill ("Studs" to everyone except his parents) grows up, drops out of school because he doesn't see the point, has a girlfriend named Lucy for like one afternoon and then spends the rest of his short life alternating between fantasizing about her perfection and wanting to screw ("jazz" or "make" as he puts it) practically every woman he meets, works for his dad painting houses until the economy goes bust, drinks too much, ruins his health, knocks up the only other girlfriend he's ever managed to get (the sort-of-unattractive but totally devoted Catherine) and feels forced into marrying her, and, eventually, dies of pneumonia. There's really nothing remarkable about Studs at all. The highlights of his life, at least in his mind, were that afternoon with Lucy and the time he kicked the local bully's ass as a kid. He never achieves anything more than that. He spends his life alternating between feeling like something exciting is about to happen and hating himself for not really accomplishing anything. He alternates between blaming the world for his bad luck and being furious at himself for the bad choices he made. In other words, he is totally, completely, convincingly human.
This is a book about the human condition, but the city of Chicago in the Great Depression years is as much a character in the book as Studs is. There's always an elevated train rattling by or a Chicago blizzard or miserable Chicago rain going on. The novel is like a time-lapse of Studs's nice neighborhood being ruined by black people. Don't read this book if you can't tolerate depictions of historical racism. "Prejudice" doesn't even cover it. Everyone in this book throws around the n-word shamelessly, as well as some other names I'd never even heard of: "shine", "eight-ball." It's fascinating -- a clear and unself-conscious look into what life was like by then, in a time where it was okay to talk and think that way. Studs and especially his father blame the Negroes for ruining the neighborhood and the "international Jew bankers" for causing the Depression and the Poles and Hunkies for taking jobs away from Americans.
The only people who really come out winners in this book are Studs's two sisters, who both ended up married to respectable businessmen. Studs's parents are ruined, by bank failures and the death of their son. (And you kind of know they will be from the beginning. Early on, they talk about their dreams of going to Ireland for a vacation once Studs can take over the business from his father, and you just KNOW that's never going to happen.) Studs makes a really dumb investment and watches his stock go down, down, down, the whole time holding out hope that it will rebound when you KNOW it won't. Studs's poor fiancee Catherine is left pregnant with a baby and with the knowledge that Studs's mother blames her for his death. (If he hadn't needed to find a job to support the baby, he wouldn't have caught pneumonia walking around out in the rain! Studs's sisters call the mother on her bullshit, pointing out that Studs shares some of the blame, which the mother takes as an unbelievable insult to her dying son.) Out of the kids Studs used to run around with in the old neighborhood, a large number of them die over the course of the book, causing Studs to have a building obsession with his own health and the possibility of an early death. All in all, it's a fairly depressing book. But I loved it because it was REAL.
September 9, 2019
I hope I never have to read a 900 page book on the train ever again.
March 3, 2013
Hmm . . . I'm not really sure what to make of this book. After completing it I find that it was a bit of a fatalistic diatribe. The railing against Negroes (called various racist epithets throughout the book), Jews (the same), women in general (mysogny), lesbians and homosexuals was blood-curdling to read. It would be my hope that Farrell was laying bare the rampant racism and sexism of his day with a higher social purpose but I can't be at all certain of that. With the life story of the main character of Studs Lonigan Farrell seems to have had a moral in mind. The Great Depression is painstakingly portrayed through glimpses into the lives of those who lived it, that is through the lives of those White folks who lived it. I would guess that this novel would never have gained the notoriety that it did had it not been for its sensational treatment of sexual matters. Sadly the racism and sexism that pervades it would not have been cause for reader interest or concern. I would recommend reading this book, however, to gain profound insight into the legacy of blatant racism and sexism that lives on in a more polite, sanitized version today.
November 1, 2013
I don't know what to say: this book uses the words "kike" and "nigger" on practically every page, and the "hero" regularly blames all "kikes" and "niggers" for all of his problems. You keep expecting some reversal of his ignorant, red-neck, narrow-minded point of view, but it never comes.
Although the novel is 'rescued,' to some degree, in the last 500 pages (it is epic), I am still wondering why in the hell it was ever published by The Modern Library. I thought I could COUNT on them to distill the BEST out of classic literature. ...(Of course, they also publish Ulysses, and count it as one of the great accomplishments of Western Lit).
Somewhat incredibly, Tom Wolfe (A Man In Full; Bonfire of the Vanities; I Am Charlotte Simmons; Back to Blood) considers Studs Lonigan as one of the most influential novels of all time.
Influential? I guess that's a little ambiguous (thankfully).
Although the novel is 'rescued,' to some degree, in the last 500 pages (it is epic), I am still wondering why in the hell it was ever published by The Modern Library. I thought I could COUNT on them to distill the BEST out of classic literature. ...(Of course, they also publish Ulysses, and count it as one of the great accomplishments of Western Lit).
Somewhat incredibly, Tom Wolfe (A Man In Full; Bonfire of the Vanities; I Am Charlotte Simmons; Back to Blood) considers Studs Lonigan as one of the most influential novels of all time.
Influential? I guess that's a little ambiguous (thankfully).
December 25, 2008
Who was Studs Lonigan? He was just another tough-guy wannabe who lived in the early part of the twentieth century. He was a lower middle-class Irish-American unable to escape the world he was born to. He was just like millions of other faceless man who lived at the same time. However, there was much more to him than that. Farrell reveals a complex inner dialogue that Studs is never able to really understand or express. The life of Studs is filled with racism, sexism, alcoholism - presented without judgement. Studs is clearly not a sympathetic character, but he is an archetype for many men of the same era.
November 20, 2020
I recently re-read James T. Farrell's Studs Lonigan trilogy. I was in my 20s when I first read it.
It struck me as a masterfully poignant telling of the arc of one persons' life in Chicago, starting in 1917, when Studs is finishing junior high school, to his death in the late 1930s, as the Great Depression ground on.
Now in my 60s, I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading that tale. There are elements in the story that resonant with contemporary times. This is a fantastic book!
It struck me as a masterfully poignant telling of the arc of one persons' life in Chicago, starting in 1917, when Studs is finishing junior high school, to his death in the late 1930s, as the Great Depression ground on.
Now in my 60s, I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading that tale. There are elements in the story that resonant with contemporary times. This is a fantastic book!
August 13, 2014
Farrell's trilogy is a landmark narrative of Irish-American urban life from World War I through the Depression. The books are rich, vivid and engrossing, though not without some major flaws. The first (Young Lonigan) neatly introduces and establishes the parameters of Studs Lonigan's life: the South Side Chicago neighborhood, the Lonigan family, the ever-present Catholic Church, within and against which the teenaged Studs struggles to find out who he is and who he'll become.
But the second book (The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan) loses momentum as Farrell shifts the focus from Studs to become more of a narrative of the neighborhood and its vast cast of characters, most of whom are thinly-drawn and often one-dimensional. The seemingly endless bantering between the characters, on street corners, diners and pool halls, quickly dissolves from amusing to tedious. It's almost as if Farrell was trying to write his own version of Winesburg, Ohio, substituting Irish-American characters and a city setting for Sherwood Anderson's Anglo-Saxon small-town folk, telling the stories of secondary characters as they revolve around Studs instead of fully continuing the story of Studs himself.
The third book (Judgment Day) is the strongest of the trilogy, as Farrell tightens the focus to Studs (now in his twenties, still single, working for his father and living at home) and the Lonigan family as they all deal with the changing racial demographics of the South Side and the punishing hardships of the Depression. The book ends on a sad but logically realistic note, as Studs' meandering life ultimately amounts to little. If all three books were as good as this one, the trilogy could have been considered one of the great epics of American literature. As it is, it makes for a fascinating (though often patience-straining) read.
Studs Lonigan is a challenging character for Farrell to have devoted nearly a thousand pages to writing about. More antihero than hero, Studs is passive, indecisive, naive, mean-spirited, a braggart and often brutal to others. He's a hard protagonist to cheer for, and the fact that the reader still wants to keep reading is a great tribute to Farrell's considerable writing skills.
But the second book (The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan) loses momentum as Farrell shifts the focus from Studs to become more of a narrative of the neighborhood and its vast cast of characters, most of whom are thinly-drawn and often one-dimensional. The seemingly endless bantering between the characters, on street corners, diners and pool halls, quickly dissolves from amusing to tedious. It's almost as if Farrell was trying to write his own version of Winesburg, Ohio, substituting Irish-American characters and a city setting for Sherwood Anderson's Anglo-Saxon small-town folk, telling the stories of secondary characters as they revolve around Studs instead of fully continuing the story of Studs himself.
The third book (Judgment Day) is the strongest of the trilogy, as Farrell tightens the focus to Studs (now in his twenties, still single, working for his father and living at home) and the Lonigan family as they all deal with the changing racial demographics of the South Side and the punishing hardships of the Depression. The book ends on a sad but logically realistic note, as Studs' meandering life ultimately amounts to little. If all three books were as good as this one, the trilogy could have been considered one of the great epics of American literature. As it is, it makes for a fascinating (though often patience-straining) read.
Studs Lonigan is a challenging character for Farrell to have devoted nearly a thousand pages to writing about. More antihero than hero, Studs is passive, indecisive, naive, mean-spirited, a braggart and often brutal to others. He's a hard protagonist to cheer for, and the fact that the reader still wants to keep reading is a great tribute to Farrell's considerable writing skills.
February 11, 2010
Growing up in a blue collar, Irish Catholic family, I was acutely aware of the paradoxes: The Irish are free-spirited rebels and poets in the vein of Oscar Wilde, but the Irish are also renowned for being cops, priests, and bigots.
The "Studs Lonigan Trilogy" encapsulates all of these contradictions. At face value, the bigotry and sexism of "Studs Lonigan" can be off putting, but a cursory check in about author James Farrell's history will re-iterate that he was just putting a mirror up to the world he grew up in rather than celebrating its outdated attitudes. James Farrell, one drunken Irish author with vision, railed against Joe McCarthy, another drunken Irishman with a skewed and reactionary take on things.
The work of a great novel is to be timeless: This trilogy was published in The Great Depression, but it was a salvation to me when I received it as a Christmas present this past year. I'm glad I waited until my thirties to read this. Had I read it as a shaver, its litanies of woe, depression, premature death, and substance abuse would have been wasted on me.
The "Studs Lonigan Trilogy" encapsulates all of these contradictions. At face value, the bigotry and sexism of "Studs Lonigan" can be off putting, but a cursory check in about author James Farrell's history will re-iterate that he was just putting a mirror up to the world he grew up in rather than celebrating its outdated attitudes. James Farrell, one drunken Irish author with vision, railed against Joe McCarthy, another drunken Irishman with a skewed and reactionary take on things.
The work of a great novel is to be timeless: This trilogy was published in The Great Depression, but it was a salvation to me when I received it as a Christmas present this past year. I'm glad I waited until my thirties to read this. Had I read it as a shaver, its litanies of woe, depression, premature death, and substance abuse would have been wasted on me.
May 4, 2011
Studs Lonigan, the great american dreamer. This character is similar in his abject failures to Jude The Obscure. An indolent and floundering wanna-be. He holds tightly to two fleeting moments in his life (an afternoon with a girl and a fight with a dude). He hopes for great things, dreams about them and gives us alot of introspection and yet he can achieve nothing because he never does anything except hang out in poolrooms, fight, talk with repugnance and vulgarity about women, and hope that some great thing will happen to him.
This book is stark, dark and dreary realism, set during the great depression, and gives a good feel about the general anxiety of the depression, panic over bank closures, plunging stocks and paranoia over "reds". Unfortunately, it also paints a savage portrait of the racism and bigotry of those times. It is difficult to read about those events, and yet Farrell certainly doesn't sugar coat anything and since there wasn't such a thing as political correctness in 1934, the facts are blatantly told in idiomatic detail.
This book is stark, dark and dreary realism, set during the great depression, and gives a good feel about the general anxiety of the depression, panic over bank closures, plunging stocks and paranoia over "reds". Unfortunately, it also paints a savage portrait of the racism and bigotry of those times. It is difficult to read about those events, and yet Farrell certainly doesn't sugar coat anything and since there wasn't such a thing as political correctness in 1934, the facts are blatantly told in idiomatic detail.
July 3, 2007
This book contains its share of racial slurs, anti-feminist sentiment and all types of offensive comments. However, if you can stomach it, the point of view really lends to the tale. This book tells the story of a lifetime of excuses and missed opportunities as Studs makes his way through turn-of-the-century-and-beyond Chicago. Being from the city, I found the story to bear a great deal of historical weight and I really learned from the context.
James T. Farrell is the author of this book, but all you hear, feel, and understand is Studs. The best part of this book is that the reader and the characters are not separated by a storyteller, hence the rough language and hurtful descriptions.
Keep in mind that this book is not pleasant, and is written from a now outdated perspective that is necessary to tell this story of unaccounted for misfortune.
James T. Farrell is the author of this book, but all you hear, feel, and understand is Studs. The best part of this book is that the reader and the characters are not separated by a storyteller, hence the rough language and hurtful descriptions.
Keep in mind that this book is not pleasant, and is written from a now outdated perspective that is necessary to tell this story of unaccounted for misfortune.
January 27, 2018
This was a good series, but also uncomfortable. The three books follow William "Studs" Lonigan. When they begin, he is 14 and on the verge of manhood. It's the 1910's and Studs is a Catholic boy who is interested in girls and his friends. He's not interested in school or the future.
The book follows World War I, the Jazz age, and the depression. We follow Studs as he and his friends struggle with liquor, women, and trying to become men. Studs, like his friends, is racist and anti-semitic. They think of women as sex objects and do everything to avoid working. It was a common belief in the time, but it can still be uncomfortable to read. Studs is unapologetic and when he gets beaten down in life it's always someone else's fault.
I thought the book was well-written and a very accurate depiction of the world during that time.
The book follows World War I, the Jazz age, and the depression. We follow Studs as he and his friends struggle with liquor, women, and trying to become men. Studs, like his friends, is racist and anti-semitic. They think of women as sex objects and do everything to avoid working. It was a common belief in the time, but it can still be uncomfortable to read. Studs is unapologetic and when he gets beaten down in life it's always someone else's fault.
I thought the book was well-written and a very accurate depiction of the world during that time.
August 10, 2011
This book was a bit to get through at nearly 900 pages; however, it is well worth the journey that the reader follows through the young life of Studs Lonigan. The novel I found to have immense perspective in the mind of a young teen to young adult that even though was based in the 1919-1930s is something that nearly all young adults can relate. I found the allegorical use of death, dying and illness as a way of showing the importance of living. The novel does an excellent job of showing how it is so easy to live without truly living and leaves the reader with the slight etchings of the life of a person with the realization that just as Studs Lonigan lived and die so does each and everyone of us.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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