Set This House On Fire

A heinous case of abuse. And by that, I mean an author abusing his readers. Sure, the novel is about rape and murder, but at any point in the book, from the first chapter to the last, you will feel more violated than any of the characters, whether it's due to grown men referring to other grown men as "dollbaby," scenes of alcoholic drunkenness that go on for dozens and dozens of pages, female characters treated as either pieces of meat or helpless elfin fairies, the author's (and characters') lo [...]

So the TV's on, tuned to an early-morning movie I'm not watching. I'm trying to figure out what to read next, six books laid out on the coffee table before me. I eliminate William Styron's "Set This House on Fire," figuring I'd wait to re-read that excellent novel next year. I put it back on the bookshelf. The movie catches my eye. It's "Naked in New York," which I'd never seen or even heard of. Eric Stoltz points out to Mary-Louise Parker that the man across the room at the party is William Sty [...]

When I was young I felt this was Styron's richest, most entertaining novel, and I still enjoy it. But my perceptions have changed a lot. I read this book when I was an undergraduate years ago. I gobbled up the lush Italian setting, the boozing and the brawls, the colorful supporting cast of millionaires and movie stars and barefoot Italian beauties. The central conflict was a classic man to man battle like MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY. The dashing charm of the corrupt boyish American millionaire, Mason [...]

Da der Inhalt im ausführlichen Klappentext hinreichend erläutert wird, beschränke ich mich dieses mal auf meine Reaktionen. Ich habe eine Schwäche für Bücher aus den Fünfzigern, die im Umfeld eines Drehs spielen und liebe Romane, in denen ein gönnerhafter Jugendfreund als manipulatives Arschloch entlarvt wird. Von daher war Styrons zweiter Roman ein Kandidat für mindestens vier Sterne, aber was der spätere Pulitzerpreisträger aus seinen Reiseeindrücken, Vorurteilen und Schuldkomplexe [...]

I read this as part of my Big Fat Reading Project and also because ever since I read Sophie's Choice so many years ago and had my mind completely rearranged, I vowed to read all of Styron's novels. In a way, it's a good thing he didn't write too many because each one is such a heavy dose of human anguish and Faulkner-like rambling complete with long philosophical passages run through some character's mouth. Reading too much Styron in a row could induce suicidal thoughts at least, maybe worse.In [...]

I must confess, this wasn’t the book I was looking for when I wandered out into the stacks at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library with my sights set on William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice. (I’d always enjoyed the movie immensely and wanted, finally, to give the author his due.) Unfortunately, my sights were not to be satisfied: Sophie’s Choice was out; and so, I settled for Styron’s Set This House on Fire, a book I’d never even heard of and consequently knew nothing about.I [...]

A convoluted mess of a book, which was roundly panned when it came out after the incredible debut of "Lie down in darkness". I remember throwing myself eagerly on this book and giving up, totally puzzled, a third of the way through. The prose was excellent as always, but the characters felt totally flat and un-engaging. Fortunately Styron redeemed himself with Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice.

3.5

Hmmmphomore slump? This book is nowhere near as good as Styron's stunning debut novel, Lie Down in Darkness*, but it was interesting in a few ways. First of all, it's about writers and drunkenness and being artistically blocked and expatriate escapism, and if one is into those sorts of things (ahem) then one may find oneself folding down multiple page corners, or, if one is forced to get the book via digital e-library because one is in China and can't find a hard copy, highlighting multiple pass [...]

I see a lot of people here like this book, but I don't get why. The first half is unpleasant though absorbing. Styron seems to think it is interesting for characters to rant eccentrically about whatever is on their mind, but I would disagree, and I soon started skipping all rants. The story is intriguing, and for a while the book was kind of interesting, as we see the naive narrator come to see the truth of his pretentious friend. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it change [...]

William Styron has crafted an electrifying and deeply unsettling novel of rape, murder, and suicide -- a work with a Dostoevskian insight into the dreadful persuasiveness of evil.-- The New York Times Book ReviewThat's the first part of the novel -- absolutely brilliant writing.But, the novel grinds down to an incredibly boring monologue - absolutely unreadable. Couldn't force myself to finish the book.

Not the cover of the edition I read. The one I had was an old paperback published after WS's preceding work. I picked this up because of the author but was not rewarded. Pretty much a total crap fest once the action gets to the Villa/movie set. Some interesting asides such as the depiction of rural poverty in post-war Italy but awful for the rest of it. Why the high ratings???

he's a master framer. a raging alcoholic, an insatiable genius, a gullible observer, a rainbow of beautiful women--they all appear throughout his works, shades of each in the other. part of it is set in italy. i love his writing.

Styron takes on a decidedly purple hue in this gargantua. An additional 100 pages of philosophizing by a cop named Luigi doesn't help. But, when Styron hits, he hits hard. Macho page count, minor novel.

Out of all of Styron's books, I just could not get into this at all. Moving on

What I remember about this? Rolling my eyes, yawning, and looking forward to the end. Oh yeah, and there was a tepid orgy scene too.

What can I say - I read this a while ago. William Styron is the bee's knees. He makes me feel drunk.

A great deal of philosophical discussion concerning good, evil, and God's Grace set in post-WWII Italy. Some beautiful prose, just far too much of it.

Not my favorite Styron, but still pretty darn good. Styron writes well about guilt and its impact on how we live.

This will only be the 2nd from Styron for me, the first Sophie's Choice, and I wish I could tell you if I saw the movie before I read the story, or not. I think I saw the movie first and I still can picture/see Meryl Streep (that don't look right?) saying "cocksucker" when she means "seersucker". This one begins:Sambuco. Of the drive from Salerno to Sambuco, Nagel's Italy has this to say: "The road is hewn nearly the whole way in the cliffs of the coast. An evervaried panorama unfolds before our [...]

Text vyvatovaný ako zimník, ktorý nehreje. Neviem, aký je opak kongeniálneho, ale aj v tomto prípade našiel autor s prekladateľom vzácnu zhodu. Keď sa totiž vezme príbeh, ktorý by taký McEwan vybavil s minimálnymi stratami brisknou novelou, rozvláčni sa do tisícok mimochodných parentéz, a zverí prekladateľke, ktorá úporným úsilím o presnosť spomalí ťažkopádnymi mennými konštrukciami a doslovizmami tempo rozprávania z melasového do asfaltovitého, výsledkom je [...]

I had not read Styron for many years since reading Sophie's Choice at least a decade ago, if not more. Unlike Sophie's Choice, which I loved, I really struggled to finish this book. Of the three main characters, Peter, the narrator, Mason, the privileged and sleazy poseur, and Cass, the failed, self-absorbed artist, only Cass elicited any sympathy from me despite his monstrous crime. And despite some wondrously lyrical prose, the casual and cruel racism, misogyny, and xenophobia were really hard [...]

This was one of the most frustrating reads I have ever put myself through. I would have stopped after the first few chapters, but there was enough of a plot buried in all the unnecessary language to keep me interested. The only way I managed to finish was to skim over all the drunk ravings and pontifications, and the endless needless descriptions, and focus on the occasional sentence or two that actually advanced the story. I did read Sophie's Choice, also by Styron, years ago and don't remember [...]

Strange, meandering, violent, drunken story. Not to my taste at all.

This book was exhausting. It took me months to read it. I struggled to gain momentum or find a rhythm as a reader. I really didn't have the itch to make time to read it, until the last quarter of the book, . It was the anti-page-turner, so to speak. But something in me doesn't sit well with starting books and leaving them unfinished. Many times I considered moving on, putting it down, but I kept with it and I'm glad I did. I'm not one to skim much either, but with this monster, I found myself sk [...]

Set This House on Fire plays on the idea of salvation within the framework of crime and punishment. It uses the means of Gothic romance for developing this salvation story of Cass Kinsolving even though it does not follow Gothic conventions step by step. It borrows from the structure of confessional literature for presenting plot within a plot but not limits itself with the inner dynamics. It imitates Greek tragedy while presenting dramatic characters. All in all, it is, somehow, an experimental [...]

Меня эта книга больше всего не отпускала из-за яркого персонажа Мейсона Флагга. Во время чтения он вызвал двойственные чувства и вместе с тем глубокий интерес, как нестандартная личность.По логике, в первую очередь он должен вызывать презрение: молодой невероятно богатый � [...]

Perhaps not the tour de force that Sophie’s Choice is, but then he’s twenty plus years younger here. Still . . . quite magnificent in its own right. Structure is complex in reality, simple in perception. The mind follows him along every crack and crevice of the mountain the character is climbing and then descending. He creates opinionated, moral characters. Not Sunday School moral, but humanistic moral—people who instinctively know right from wrong though they don’t always practice doing [...]

Excellent writer and does not disappoint in beautifully drawn vignettes and fabulous descriptions. A bit long and involved but writing carries you through.So many references to issues of today even though set in post wwII time. The rule of mammon and the take over of political structure by appealing to the lowest denominator. Never read Lie Down in Darkness and may have to do so to add to Confessions of Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice

A heavy read, one that requires concentration. Writing that it almost intimidating in its power. The story is seemingly known very early, and the bulk of the book concerns itself with explaining it and revealing that which was assumed incorrectly. Deep, dark and revealing.