In This Our Life

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Summary: A colorful, stark book on the changing of the social tides.
Review: "Your creeds are dead, your rites are dead,/ Your social order too!/ Where tarries he, the Power who said:/ See, I make all things new?" As the lines indicate from the beginning of Ellen Glasgow's, In This Our Life, this is the core theme that is throughout the whole book: New order vs. Old order. It takes place during the forties with a family named Timberlake. There is Asa, Lavinia, Roy and Stanley (both daughters). Both daughters are married or soon will be, but the younger sister, Stanley, runs away with Roy's husband and vice versa. After that, tragedies begin to pile up. The daughters refuse to listen to their father's wise old order advice and knowledge. They feel their more modern, new order view is better -- 'with it'. The book is really about the fabric of what keeps a family united: love, tradition, character, values, patience, etc... However, what happens when there is a split of opinion of what keeps a family together? Will that family survive? Ellen Glasgow does a wonderful job at making readers see the changing of social values as technology became and continues to be more powerful and the youth more determined to get that 'quick gratification' or 'instant fix'. Though published in 1941 and later awarded the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for literature, this book could have a lot to say even in today's times. The youth of America could get some profound wisdom out of this book. It deserves more acclaim then it has received!