Arrowsmith Beginnings

Okay folks, I think I have found the first Pulitzer that has me a bit baffled. So far I'm not too excited about this one, mostly because there are a lot of big medical words I don't understand. I get the basic underlining story, but I'm afraid a lot is going over my head because I don't know what he is talking about. So far the story is about a young man who is going to medical school because he has always wanted to be a doctor, thanks to an old doctor in his hometown that he assisted. While at medical school he realizes that he doesn't agree with all the commercialism that comes with being a doctor, namely getting patients and where to practice to earn the most money, etc. He loves the science and is in awe of a professor named Gottlieb who is a bacteriologist and Martin Arrowsmith (he's the main character by the way) wants to be just like him. He just got out of a huge bind with two girls and seems to be on tract to being happy. I'm only about 76 pages in and feeling a big overwhelmed. I really like to read books blind, meaning I don't want to know what it is about before I start, that way I don't have any expectations for the book. I've really enjoyed this approach with these Pulitzer books, so we'll see where this one leads.

So Big Review

There are three possible morals of the book and I can't decide which is the right one. The first moral is to listen to your mother, she is always right. The mother, Selina, who is my favorite character of the book, gives her son some advice and of course it pans out exactly the way she says. This goes along with the second moral, which is: if you want something, work for it. Selina's son, Dirk, studies to be an architect and gets frustrated because it's not going anywhere and the woman he is in love with, Paula, won't marry anyone who isn't making millions; she just wants him if he is making money. After the war he decides to give up his goal of being an architect to sell bonds because he can make his yearly salary from his architect job in two months time. Unfortunately, Paula marries an older man who is a multimillionaire. The third moral is to be yourself and not follow the crowd. This is something I've noticed happening around me. Many of the homes I go into look so similar, there is no personality. I couldn't tell you what the people love or who they are except that they are following the trends and are trying to be like everyone else. The author, Edna Ferber, feels the same way about the wealthy people she writes about in her book. She paints them all as just trying to be like the others in the way they dress and act, and the activities they partake in. Dirk gets caught up in all this crowd. He becomes very successful and many of the young women would like to catch his eye. Paula and Dirk begin to spend lots of time together, she starts to control him, and they start meeting in secret places. It never actually says that they have an affair, but it's heading that way when Dirk meets another woman. Her name is Dallas O'Mara, she is an artist and is not concerned with what other people are doing; she's her own person. She is much like Selina in that she looks for the beauty in everything and sees it in places the rest of society doesn't. Dirk realizes that this woman is who he wants to be with and Paula begins to get on his nerves. What was the advice his mother gave him? "Someday you will want beauty and she will not want you." This is how the book ends. Dirk views Dallas as beauty, he loves all that she is and how she looks at the world. He loves how she doesn't follow the crowd and how she is her own person. He loves her, she likes him but chooses to go to Paris to study portrait painting. Her reason for not loving him back? He didn't work for what he wanted. He gave up architecture because he wasn't successful fast enough, she wished he would have stuck it out and worked hard for it. She mentions his hands how they're smooth and not bumpy from work, she would like his hands to be bumpy.

This story is actually only about the last third of the book. The beginning of the book is a portrait of the Dutch culture and the life of truck farmers. It's a story of a woman Selina, who is told life is an adventure and she should try other things, when she does just that she ends up married to a poor farmer and shortly after that a widow. She takes those lemons and makes lemon crème pie out of it. I love her attitude, her love of beauty in everything, her strength and her intelligence. If the story was all about her I would have given the book five balls of yarn, she is a great character and one I will remember.

So Big So Far

As I began to read this book, I wasn't sure if I would like it. The author skipped from one character to another so much that I was unsure which character the book was about; it caused me much confusion. As I continued reading I realized that the book is named after a nickname of the main character's son. The nickname came from the game you play with babies: "how big are you? Soooo Big!". The son’s real name is Dirk.

This book has made me reflect on my own life and how blessed I am. It tells the story of a young girl who marries a farmer and what the life of a farm wife in the late 1800s is like. As I read the book lying on my couch, while my two younger kids are having quiet time, I realize that I have no room to complain about the small amount of work required of me. Often I feel too busy to do the simplest task or I complain that my appliance that washes the dishes so I don't have to, doesn't work so well. No more. She describes feelings and emotions so well, it's not too hard to feel the exhaustion as well as the emotions of love that the characters feel.

I love that so far the main character Selina is very head-strong and independent, unlike many of the other farm wives in her community. One week after her husband dies she is at the market selling the vegetables from her farm—the only woman in a “man's world”. Her vision of what the farm could be shows her willingness to think outside the box, where her husband (obviously before his death) doesn't want to change from the way his father farmed the land. As the future plays out her visions prove to be correct and profitable.

Dirk is away at college now. I don't think the author thinks too much of young college coeds. She kind of goes on a rant for about three pages talking how they don't value their college education very much. So we'll see what Dirk becomes in his life, he doesn't know what career path he wants to take, he just knows he wants to be "successful" or rich. So we'll see how it continues, stay tuned.