Rating: 
Summary: A Book of Unforgettable Portaits
Review: "L'Assommoir" is widely held to be Zola's masterpiece, and it is certainly true that in his brilliant depiction of the rise and fall of the laundress Gervaise Macquart he manages to leave behind for once the sometimes annoying baggage of his ideological and "scientific" preoccupations. The novel was designed to be a condemnation of the conditions facing the working poor in the Paris of the Second Empire, and Zola's usual methods of intensive linguistic and sociological research are very much on display. But above all, "L'Assommoir" is a book of unfogettable portaits that transcends the specific moment in time when it was written and has captivated readers for nearly 130 years. Gervaise is a truly memorable creation, drawn with loving care; the city in which she lives, the Paris of Haussmanization, is just as vividly rendered; the supporting cast of Lantier the scoundrel, the doomed Coupeau, the admirable but odious Lorrilleux and all their fellows combine to form a whole that really does deserve the sadly degraded encomium of "masterpiece." Read this one, and be captivated in turn!
Rating:
Summary: A Book of Unforgettable Portaits
Review: "L'Assommoir" is widely held to be Zola's masterpiece, and it is certainly true that in his brilliant depiction of the rise and fall of the laundress Gervaise Macquart he manages to leave behind for once the sometimes annoying baggage of his ideological and "scientific" preoccupations. The novel was designed to be a condemnation of the conditions facing the working poor in the Paris of the Second Empire, and Zola's usual methods of intensive linguistic and sociological research are very much on display. But above all, "L'Assommoir" is a book of unfogettable portaits that transcends the specific moment in time when it was written and has captivated readers for nearly 130 years. Gervaise is a truly memorable creation, drawn with loving care; the city in which she lives, the Paris of Haussmanization, is just as vividly rendered; the supporting cast of Lantier the scoundrel, the doomed Coupeau, the admirable but odious Lorrilleux and all their fellows combine to form a whole that really does deserve the sadly degraded encomium of "masterpiece." Read this one, and be captivated in turn!
Rating: 
Summary: Greasy food and dirty laundry
Review: After Balzac's comedy, Stendhal's romanticism, and Flaubert's cynicism, Zola's gritty, candid realism sort of hits you like a ton of bricks. In "L'Assommoir" you get to see Paris's unwashed masses as they probably looked and lived in the sweatiest, smelliest, grimiest parts of the city, from the bars to the slums to the workplaces, in the 1850's and 1860's. Alcoholism is undeniably a theme, as indicated by the novel's title, but it is presented as a symptom of personal irresponsibility rather than of economic, political, or religious issues. The principal character is a provincial girl named Gervaise who has been living in a small, filthy apartment in a working class Paris neighborhood with her boyfriend Lantier and their two sons, the first of whom she had when she was fourteen. Lantier runs away with another woman, leaving Gervaise to fend for herself; but soon she accepts a marriage proposal from a roofer named Coupeau. He promises to be a good husband, swearing he never touches liquor because the stuff had killed his father. Their marriage is fine at first, producing a daughter named Nana and allowing Gervaise to start her own laundry business. But eventually things take a turn for the worse. Coupeau injures himself at work one day and during his convalescence begins drinking with his buddies and becomes too lazy to return to work full time. Lantier returns after several years, reconciling with Gervaise and Coupeau to the extent that he moves in with them and "shares" Gervaise. The family descends into inescapable poverty as Gervaise starts her own drinking habit and neglects her business. These acts of dissipation rub off on Nana, who grows up to be a saucy tart (to put it nicely), sleeping around for food and lodging because her parents are no longer providing. All the while, Coupeau's petty, jealous sister and brother-in-law, the Lorilleux, rejoice at each of Gervaise's misfortunes. This being a novel about the working class, we expect to see a copious display of vulgarities; but the real point of interest is Zola's apparent delight in portraying these vulgarities. Whether describing a bloody melee in a laundry between Gervaise and a washerwoman who is taunting her about Lantier's infidelity, Gervaise and Coupeau's wedding party who gawk at exhibits in the Louvre and argue over the check at dinner, the gluttonous, sloppy feast on Gervaise's saint's day, or the "emptying" of Coupeau's mother's corpse, Zola is ostentatiously graphic. He harnesses the power of pure portrayal, astutely recognizing that, in subject matter like this, reality is much more convincing than caricature.
Rating:
Summary: The Pernicious Consequences of Poverty and Alcoholism
Review: Gervaise Macquart's downfall basically boils down to her lack of culture. Visiting the Louvre museum (in chapter III) shows how the lower social classes interprete the centuries-old culture. This very lack of culture is the reason for the alcohol addiction and other vises portrayed in "l'Assomoir/the Drum Shop". It also explains the underdevelopment of the class-consciousness. Only as late as chapter X Gervaise starts drinking, but she soon becomes addicted to it, which reflects not only the poor living conditions, but also her ancestry (referring to the novels "la fortune des Rougons/the fortune of Rougons" and "Doctor Pascal"). There is a very brief mention (early in the novel) of Gervaise' sister Lisa from the novel "La Ventre de Paris/the Underbelly of Paris", but Gervaise never gets into any contacts with her; that explains that the social status plays a more important role than the family ties. There are interesting depictions of Nana, the <> of the novel with the same title. In chapter V there are some glimpses of Nana as a small girl and chapter XI shows more mature Nana...Guijet is a somewhat controversial character. He is a lot different from everybody else in a positive way but it is questionable whether sobriety and hard work alone can save one from plunging into an abyss; environmental factors also play some role.
Rating:
Summary: an extraordinary treatise on society and its discontents
Review: I first came across this book in a French literature class during undergrad studies, and today I still strive in my Zola-inspired scholarly pursuits, meaning that I look into the elements of his world including the paintings of Cezanne and Manet. Thereby, I have read nearly everything Zola wrote, but this book is truly the masterpiece because in it he sums up all his sadness for the state of man's own doing. He was a painter of human nature from the inside out. When I consider American impressionism, Mary Cassatt's images come to mind: a mother holding a baby. So, compare that with the sordid, dark grey days of Zola's Gervaise, a mother who slowly becomes unrecognizable to even her own childern. The story is painful, but truthful. Start with this book, like I did. Plus, if you get a taste of absinthe, you'll appreciate how wretched the lives of his characters must have been and how necessary it was to seek solace in this sweet (albeit sickly, in a way) green spirit. (That's what she's drinking in the painting on this Penguin Paperback, a work by Renoir who was not a dear friend of Zola's but a part of that special circle nonetheless.)
Rating:
Summary: The Tragic View of poverty in Paris
Review: I had read this book a year ago, but I was reminded of it when Bill Cosby received a lot of cheap criticism (especially from the loathsome column of B. Ehrenreich) recently for his NAACP speech. Who do we hold responsible for the various plights of the urban poor?
Fans of the "Great Society" liberal approach to poverty may be well served by this story. Can "Society" be blamed for the unraveling of Gervaise and Coupeau, or are they merely weak people who lose a great battle to alcohol? Gervaise's decent into alcoholism happens after she has found success as a businesswoman. Coupeau starts to drink after an accident forces him into temporary idleness, but until then he was productive and capable of feeding his family. So I doubt that poverty is the beast that slays Coupeau and Gervaise.
The clearest external cause to their demise could be the lack of familial support, as evidenced by the foul attitude of the Lorilleux. There does not seem to be anybody trustworthy for Gervaise to turn to. And sadly, in the end she abandons the young Nana for alcohol.
Ironically, the stinginess and dedication to profit margins exhibited by the Lourilleux seem to be the best tools to escape poverty. Gervaise, by comparison, is overly forgiving to Coupeau's habits and is too sloppy of a manager to keep her enterprise.
Other reviewers here may see a clear case of the poor being miserable victims of their circumstances. After all, Gervaise has triumphant moments throughout the middle chapters only to collapse 2/3 into the book. I can't help but think that, despite all the poverty and filth, Zola holds the parents here ultimately responsible for the fate of their children, and Gervaise's failure in this regard excuses us from the task of pity.
Rating: 
Summary: boring
Review: if this book is (as many people call it) the best work of Zola i can'timagine how boring his other books must be... this ENTIRE book is like the part in Kafka's "the trial" where Josef K's lawyer explains the system, and how the trial will result... other than that part i would say Kafka is great... read "the trial" instead of the dram shop...
Rating:
Summary: The apex of Naturalism
Review: Naturalism is the novelistic genre that aims at depicting society without any embellishment, just as things are. Usually, of course, this genre takes on the lives of the poorest and/or most degenerate layers of society. It can easily fall into cheap pornography or disgustingly morbid prose, so it is a style that demands conciseness and sociological acuteness: it is difficult to be a good Naturalist writer. Zola is the master, as you will notice by reading this book. It is the sad story of a working-class woman in Paris. Her lover abandons her and their two children, which forces her to perform low-wage and terrible jobs. She gets married again, only to struggle with her husband's extreme alcoholism and the depravation it entails, including physical abuse. It is definitely not a pleasant reading, but the situations portrayed are still very much present in contemporary societies, both in rich and poor countries.
Rating:
Summary: crushed and ground - for so long - under the heel of fate
Review: There are few novels as bleak and unrelenting as this one, at least in my reading experience. Over 500 pages, you witness the aspirations and grotesque decline of a working-class family into alcoholism, promiscuity, and violence. It is so awful, the blows so continual and harsh, that only the most committed of readers will be able to get through it. But for those that do, I believe there are great rewards. On many levels, this book broke new ground. First, it is a clinical dissection of the progression of alcoholism, based on direct observation by Zola and scientific research, describing not only its symptoms in gory detail, but its impact on a family. Second, it was one of the first attempts to portray the working class realistically, rather than as a sterotype of inferior crudity or romanticised as noble savages. THis spawned an entire genre of socially relevant novels and is a great contribution. Third, it introduced an entirely new vocabulary into French art, that is, the gutter argot that the Academie Francaise condemned as unsuitable. Taken together, these are remarkable acheivements. While I hesitate to reveal the plot, I assume that most readers will know it in outline. It involves a good person - a hard-working laundress with dreams of running her own shop - who marries a neighbor a few weeks after her lover leaves her with two children in Paris. For many years, things go well: they love eachother, work very hard and save money, and live cleanly. THen, after a terrible accident, the husband begins to drink, which initiates a downward spiral that is so painful to follow: his work suffers, then his marriage, and finally his health. The laundress, who is so sympathetic and full of hopes, is simply crushed under the burden of supporting everyone financially and emotionally. SHe wants to do what is right and fails utterly, helpless to halt the destruction she is witnessing. In addition, her many enemies, such as her spiteful in-laws and neighborhood gossips, add cruel twists to her decline. The heroine's misery and debasement are monuments to naturalist realism, through which Zola aspired to show things as they really are: there is none of the growth and romantic redemption that one expects in Anglo-saxon novels from the same period of the late 19C. On a broader longitudinal scheme, the novel also shows the backgrounds of two of Zola's most important characters, the half-siblings Nana and Etienne, who are the central characters in two truly great novels that follow (Nana and Germinal). FInally, it adds a crucial dimension to the portrait of 2nd-Empire France, that of the working class. Recommended as a truly historic novel. However, the reader is warned that there is little pleasure in store.
Rating:
Summary: Heart wrenching
Review: This is a story of poverty. It explores the life of a family who cannot escape from wretchedness. The fault is both in themselves and society. L'Assommoir is at the apex of social novels. It describes the hardships and expectations of persons scarcely able to feed themselves. During the course of the book Zola addresses these and other social issues: domestic violence, child abuse, alcoholism, infidelity, prostitution, and selfishness. Zola also discusses the childhood of Nana. But the Book, Nana, is virtually independent of L'Assomoir. Zola shows his power to tug at the heart strings. The novel is written with tremendous depth of subject matter and is a quick read. One of the reviewers below wrote that it is a prohibitionist novel. I disagree with this perspective. The book is not against all uses of alcohol; rather, it is against the abuse of alcohol.
|
