Volume 49, Number 20 · December 19, 2002
The Awkward Age
By Brad Leithauser
Penrod
by Booth Tarkington
Indiana University Press, 306 pp., $12.95 (paper)
Penrod and Sam
by Booth Tarkington
Buccaneer, 182 pp., $21.95
The Magnificent Ambersons
by Booth Tarkington
Modern Library, 288 pp., $12.95 (paper)
He inhabits a domain of consistent characterizations. So set and predictable are the phrases that evoke the people and animals he's closest to, they come to resemble epithets. The girl he pines after, Marjorie Jones, is the Most Beautiful Girl in the World. His little, long-suffering dog—who 'looked like an old postman'—is Good Old Duke. Sam Williams, his best friend and neighbor, is Comrade Sam. And he himself is the Worst Boy in Town (pop. 135,000).
Review, 3041 words
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