The Folded Leaf (Folded Leaf)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing, mildly interesting
Review: I agree that Maxwell wrote quite well, with very descriptive language, detail, and believable dialog. However, I found the story itself to be only mildly interesting. The relationship between the two main characters was unusual, of course, and complex in some ways, while lacking in breadth in many other ways. For example, there is neither significant action nor sophisticated philosophical discussion.

Some of the scenes are strong, especially when the adults participate more. I wish the girls had more character development, as Maxwell created some interesting individuals, but left them to relatively secondary roles where a longer book could have expanded their characters and interaction.

Rating:
Summary: william maxwell's "the folded leaf"
Review: Personally, this book broke my heart. This is a story of an intense friendship, a kind of friendship that can only be had by the young, and the inevitable truth of life--that love eats friendship. The book ends on a somewhat upbeat note, but Maxwell's illustration of what you have to leave behind in childhood is so, so sad. Also interesting is the physical relationship that Spud and Lymie have with each other. It is completely innocent, but I know that it would never fly in today's homo-paranoia society.

Rating:
Summary: william maxwell's "the folded leaf"
Review: Personally, this book broke my heart. This is a story of an intense friendship, a kind of friendship that can only be had by the young, and the inevitable truth of life--that love eats friendship. The book ends on a somewhat upbeat note, but Maxwell's illustration of what you have to leave behind in childhood is so, so sad. Also interesting is the physical relationship that Spud and Lymie have with each other. It is completely innocent, but I know that it would never fly in today's homo-paranoia society.

Rating:
Summary: Back when we were fab.
Review: The Folded Leaf is beautiful and lucid, a compelling read and useful for showing us what life was like for a young man in the 20s. Some of the story doesn't seem to add up- for example, I never was convinced that Spud was a compelling character but hey, maybe he just wasn't my type. And the ending is tainted with the histrionics that seems to characterize so much early gay fiction (and so much of it written now). But in the end, this may not really be a gay book, so much as a book about one boy who loves another, and how they both dealt with it.

Final analysis, the book is warm and generous and kind, beautifully written and quite bold. I can recommend it without hesitation to a general audience, and some should read it as a classic text (and you know who you are).

Rating:
Summary: Back when we were fab.
Review: The Folded Leaf is beautiful and lucid, a compelling read and useful for showing us what life was like for a young man in the 20s. Some of the story doesn't seem to add up- for example, I never was convinced that Spud was a compelling character but hey, maybe he just wasn't my type. And the ending is tainted with the histrionics that seems to characterize so much early gay fiction (and so much of it written now). But in the end, this may not really be a gay book, so much as a book about one boy who loves another, and how they both dealt with it.

Final analysis, the book is warm and generous and kind, beautifully written and quite bold. I can recommend it without hesitation to a general audience, and some should read it as a classic text (and you know who you are).

Rating:
Summary: A truly exceptional book. Very few books are this perfect
Review: This book is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read.

Such is the quality of writting that some part of it will have resonance for evryone. The story is engaging and rewarding to read, the writing is intelligent and elegant.

Maxwell can capture the subtleties of both verbal and non verbal communication and convey them with startling accuracy. His ability to identify the fragile and unredeemed features of human existence is both powerfull and moveing.

Every boy & man should read this book, it will leave them richer than it found them.

Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorites
Review: This is the best William Maxwell novel I've read and one of the best novels I've ever read, period. That is a subjective statement, but I found the writing in this book to have the quality of a daydream and for the situations to ring true to life. The novel unfolds as life does and the details fall right into place. The characters themselves often engage in daydreams, which helps give it that life-like quality. Anyway, with most novels you get a sense of a strong authorial voice behind the words, as if someone is telling you the story. With Bellow or Cheever or Nabokov, for example, Maxwell's contemporaries, all of whom I like, you get a strong sense that their voice is theirs alone. With Maxwell, the authorial voice is much more gentle, almost as if the author were vanishing and his words were rising up off the page like vapor. It's interesting that Maxwell's voice seems somewhat different, novel to novel. There are some stunning passages in So Long, See You Tomorrow, but this is my favorite of the Maxwell I've read. It captures time and place so well. The midwest in the 1920's. It's very endearing - Sally says things like, "in a pig's ear" - yet still mysterious and, finally, heartbreaking. I've read it three times in the past nine months and it is a book I'm sure I'll return to again.