Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945)

A surprisingly modern novel, except for its reliance on exposition, originally published 1900 to a problematic reception due to its descriptions of very flawed characters without an ‘uplifting’ message; a cross between Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt) and a dash of Dickens, although the author may have aimed for Balzac. Reprinted in 19927 and currently regarded as an American classic: a precursor to A Man In Full in some ways.

The main protagonist, Carrie, flees rural WI in the late 1800s for Chicago looking for work and faces the harsh working conditions of factory life while aching for the beautiful things offered to the fortunate. Via her impoverished sister, her aspiring middle class lover and then her upper middle class lover, she is a reflection of the different socioeconomic sectors in a rapidly industrialized and urban culture. A committed socialist, Dreiser takes aim at the ultimately vacuous goals presented as the golden life while frankly displaying the untenable realities in not achieving those goals.

There is no Hollywood ending, the message is never too bluntly struck and the pace keeps a good momentum; the characters are mostly presented as real people not one-dimensional. The problem is there are no brief paragraphs or even summary sentences to indicate what would have sent the characters along their paths in the first place: they become stock not because of a lack of description but because their actions appear too random. This isn’t an issue with minor characters, but for Carrie (the rise) and Hurstwood (the fall) the book would have benefited from a very modest amount of backstory, especially for Hurstwood.

Dreiser has sympathy for his characters and refrains from overt moralizing. Through the character Ames, the reader is given a “Third Way”, but with zero information on what this might actually entail. ‘Sister Carrie’ is one of those books that was important to have been written, very good to have read and will stay in the canon for a long time, but I suspect not a book to be reread.… (more)

When we first meet Carrie (Meeber/Wheeler/Madenda), she isn't terribly likeable. There are shades of a Pretty Woman storyline, and the pace is rather slow. Stick with it--there's a lot here. The innocent Carrie, treated by the men in her life like an orphan without agency, quickly learns how to forge her own path, and this will include learning to play her own games. The story itself is quite miserly--definitely a tale of fortune's wheel. Dreiser has a gift for revealing the twists and turns of the darker bits of our souls, but in such a way that it is in fact part of our mundane existence, rather than dramatic depravity. The narration is exceedingly clever--sometimes sympathetic, sometimes sardonic commentary. The descriptions of city life and class structure are rich and dimensional and we come to feel a refreshing ambiguity about our heroine at the end.… (more)

This book is about a woman who winds up with a rather modern lifestyle, never marrying or having children, having a series of serious and casual romantic attachments and even living with her lovers, and eventually setting herself up in a successful entertainment career to the extent that instead of her deadbeat boyfriend supporting her on whatever cash he had not gambled away yet, she could support him. Dreiser writes her story as if it is a subtle tragedy in which despite gaining wealth, fame, financial security, and all the finer things in life, she was missing a certain 'something', perhaps the traditional life of wife/mother. This lament coming from the narrator never rang particularly true when considering the character of Carrie though. I could not imagine Carrie, as written, actually wanting traditional marriage or babies.
Dreiser also glosses over all the preparatory work that would have gone on during Carrie's younger life for her to be able to join in with a chorus line in a ballet so easily near the end of the book. If she is able to excel as a dancer and stage performer, surely she has had some training in the past. Dreiser portrays her stage career as if there is really no skill to it, merely innate talent and an artistic mind, plus luck that lands Carrie at the right place and time to get the right opportunities to make it big. So, her success is portrayed as almost dumb luck, unearned except perhaps in some way to atone for the messy past fate gave her by that point. Meanwhile her boyfriend, who kidnapped her and took her away to a new city to live with him, is portrayed as if his choice to not look for work seriously and his choices to gamble with the money he had left were not as important as the waves of fate that turned him into a pathetic beggar. He seems clinically depressed, as a result of chronic unemployment, sure, but I still could not really care about his demise.
So, while the story was entertaining, and I could definitely relate to some of the characters, my interpretation of the situations in this novel is not quite Dreiser's. In my reading of it, Carrie gets a happy ending, albeit a realistic one where she might be a little lonely right now, but where life really is good.… (more)