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Broken Barriers
Meredith Nicholson was a best-selling author from Indiana, United States, a politician, and a diplomat.
402 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2008
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Meredith Nicholson
201 books14 followersMeredith Nicholson was a best-selling author, a politician, and a diplomat.
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February 18, 2018
Social realist novel about the emerging "new woman" of the 1920's, written by a sympathetic old Hoosier.
Grace Durland is from a proud Indianapolis family hit by hard times. Having to leave college, she takes a job as a salesgirl. Intelligent, interested in educating herself and widening her experiences, she begins a relationship with a married man.
Nicholson was clearly all for the greater opportunities afforded to women in the post-WWI years. He was nearing his sixties when he wrote this and gave the impression that it was nothing so new afterall. The married man Grace falls for, Ward Trenton, certainly thought so too:
"The man who was an angel fifty years ago would probably be a perfect devil these days if he had half a chance. The world is a different place every morning; but that's only an old habit the world has. It keeps spinning a little faster all the time."
The several scenes between Grace, her puritan elder sister Ethel and snobbish but kind mother were the foundation of the story and gave ample opportunity for the author to demonstrate the superior nature of his protagonist's enlightened attitudes.
All in all the novel was a touch lightweight compared to the plodding dreariness of fellow Hoosier Theodore Dreiser but was none the worse for it. However, Nicholson did undo all the good work in the second half of the novel. Once she fell in love, Grace became a veritable sap for Trenton. The close bought about a weak contrivance of happy endings.
I tend to agree with Nicholson's attitude toward change, best summarised in this sentence:
'Were they really breaking down the old barriers? Or was the world, aided by jazz and gasoline, moving so rapidly that in the mad rush it required a more alert eye to discern the danger signs?'
The world is always speeding up but the ground never really alters. Replace jazz and gasoline for hip-hop and jet propulsion and you could say the same today.
Grace Durland is from a proud Indianapolis family hit by hard times. Having to leave college, she takes a job as a salesgirl. Intelligent, interested in educating herself and widening her experiences, she begins a relationship with a married man.
Nicholson was clearly all for the greater opportunities afforded to women in the post-WWI years. He was nearing his sixties when he wrote this and gave the impression that it was nothing so new afterall. The married man Grace falls for, Ward Trenton, certainly thought so too:
"The man who was an angel fifty years ago would probably be a perfect devil these days if he had half a chance. The world is a different place every morning; but that's only an old habit the world has. It keeps spinning a little faster all the time."
The several scenes between Grace, her puritan elder sister Ethel and snobbish but kind mother were the foundation of the story and gave ample opportunity for the author to demonstrate the superior nature of his protagonist's enlightened attitudes.
All in all the novel was a touch lightweight compared to the plodding dreariness of fellow Hoosier Theodore Dreiser but was none the worse for it. However, Nicholson did undo all the good work in the second half of the novel. Once she fell in love, Grace became a veritable sap for Trenton. The close bought about a weak contrivance of happy endings.
I tend to agree with Nicholson's attitude toward change, best summarised in this sentence:
'Were they really breaking down the old barriers? Or was the world, aided by jazz and gasoline, moving so rapidly that in the mad rush it required a more alert eye to discern the danger signs?'
The world is always speeding up but the ground never really alters. Replace jazz and gasoline for hip-hop and jet propulsion and you could say the same today.
Displaying 1 of 1 review