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Imperial City: A Novel
672 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1937
About the author
Elmer Rice
77 books12 followersExpressionist plays of noted American playwright Elmer Leopold Rice include
The Adding Machine
(1923) and
Street Scene
(1929).
He authored novels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Rice
He authored novels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_Rice
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2024
NeglectedBooks is a great website, where I heard about this book. I would not however recommend reading this book and here's why.
1. The first half is garbage. Nothing happens, there's 100 different characters, you can't follow them all and not enough detail on any of them to make them three dimensional.
2. The main character's name is Gay, which I never really got over.
3. The learned author of the NeglectedBooks post gave too many spoilers. He literally mentioned things that happen on the top of page 672 of a 672 page book.
4. The ending is poor. While the book does gather momentum in the second half, you will be turning the pages to find out what happens. Only to never be told. The end.
5. One of the reasons I bought this was the surprising early mention of homosexuality. Well there are two coded references to lesbianism and one sentence about a man being gay around page 570. Not much there.
6. There is anti-Semitism and it's just kind of accepted. All of the black characters are servants, with the exception of a Madame, and don't be expecting them to have thoughts or feelings.
7. Much here about Communists and Reds under the Beds. But all from the position of the ruling class.
8. In his last novel, Elmer Rice opens the book with a character taking a taxi across Manhattan. He tries to pay with a $5 bill and the taxi driver complains. What is it with these rich people and their big bills. He can't break a five!!! Well don't be expecting anything like that in this book. The only thing old timey here are the attitudes.
I finished this book, but I'm really asking myself why. Why do people read? Why are people on this earth? Surely to accomplish more than this novel allows.
1. The first half is garbage. Nothing happens, there's 100 different characters, you can't follow them all and not enough detail on any of them to make them three dimensional.
2. The main character's name is Gay, which I never really got over.
3. The learned author of the NeglectedBooks post gave too many spoilers. He literally mentioned things that happen on the top of page 672 of a 672 page book.
4. The ending is poor. While the book does gather momentum in the second half, you will be turning the pages to find out what happens. Only to never be told. The end.
5. One of the reasons I bought this was the surprising early mention of homosexuality. Well there are two coded references to lesbianism and one sentence about a man being gay around page 570. Not much there.
6. There is anti-Semitism and it's just kind of accepted. All of the black characters are servants, with the exception of a Madame, and don't be expecting them to have thoughts or feelings.
7. Much here about Communists and Reds under the Beds. But all from the position of the ruling class.
8. In his last novel, Elmer Rice opens the book with a character taking a taxi across Manhattan. He tries to pay with a $5 bill and the taxi driver complains. What is it with these rich people and their big bills. He can't break a five!!! Well don't be expecting anything like that in this book. The only thing old timey here are the attitudes.
I finished this book, but I'm really asking myself why. Why do people read? Why are people on this earth? Surely to accomplish more than this novel allows.
October 14, 2026
New York City, the Imperial City, houses many rich people with very bad lives. Christopher, the bank magnate, has a wife who hates him (and sex), a son who hates him, a butler who runs a high class whorehouse on the side, and a mistress who prefers sex with her ladies maid. Gay, the middle child who became a professor at Columbia, bedevils Christopher with his pro-labor advocacy. Greg, the little brother, is the usual playboy found in these books, with a taste for bad liquor and bad women. It’s enough to drive poor Chris to drink. And so he does the periodic binge.
What does it all amount to? Hard to say. My Avon paperback abridged this 750 pager to 250 pages, so the whole mess didn’t make much sense. Even the sleek cover, showing a tuxedoed gent and his luscious date, didn’t explain a lot. My experience was that there many readable plot threads that come to nothing and a thundering anticlimax to close it all out. My guess is that the 750 page version would have been much the same but would have taken longer to read.
What does it all amount to? Hard to say. My Avon paperback abridged this 750 pager to 250 pages, so the whole mess didn’t make much sense. Even the sleek cover, showing a tuxedoed gent and his luscious date, didn’t explain a lot. My experience was that there many readable plot threads that come to nothing and a thundering anticlimax to close it all out. My guess is that the 750 page version would have been much the same but would have taken longer to read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews