The Turmoil seems to take the opposite stance, but is more subtle.
Only The Driver is clearly a pro-capitalism, pro-business and anti-intervention book. The themes are similar and both have love stories intertwined. In some ways this book reminded me of Garrett's The Driver. The Turmoil was written well into the Industrial Revolution and as such, the story revolves heavily around business and industry. It took some time to grow on me, but grow on me it did, and by the end I, who have maybe cried at the ending of three books in my entire life, couldn't hold back a tear or two. It's also not as much of a vocabulary lesson, but it definitely stands on its own as a book worth reading. So, how did The Turmoil stack up? It's not hilarious as Penrod, though there are some really funny parts. I'd also previously read Tarkington's Penrod which became one of my all-time favorites. I read The Turmoil because it's the first in a three book series, the second of which is The Magnificent Ambersons, a Pulitzer winner. The book also features illustrations by C. Rodgers places the novel squarely in the social and cultural context of the Progressive Era. Linked by the romance between a Sheridan son and a Vertrees daughter, the story of the two families provides a dramatic view of what America was like on the verge of a new order.Īn introduction by Lawrence R. The Turmoil, the first great success of his career, tells the intertwined stories of two families: the Sheridans, whose integrity wanes as their wealth increases, and the Vertrees, who remain noble but impoverished. Tarkington believed that culture could flourish even as the country was increasingly fueled by material progress. A narrative of loss and change, a love story, and a warning about the potential evils of materialism, the book chronicles two midwestern families trying to cope with the onset of industrialization.
“There is a midland city in the heart of fair, open country, a dirty and wonderful city nesting dingily in the fog of its own smoke,” begins The Turmoil, the first volume of Pulitzer Prize-winner Booth Tarkington’s “Growth” trilogy. It is set in a small, quiet city-never named but closely resembling the author’s hometown of Indianapolis-that is quickly being transformed into a bustling, money-making nest of competitors more or less overrun by “the worshippers of Bigness.” A familiar midwestern novel in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson and Sinclair Lewis, The Turmoil was the best-selling novel of 1915.