Fraternity

Uninspired Novel of Irreconcilable Class Conflict

(3 stars)

ellene

Galsworthy is such a fine writer that the story line is secondary to his profound insight into consequences that can arise when the privileged class is brought up close and personal with real poverty

(4 stars)

KAB

I'm not finished listening to the book yet, but I had to stop to remark how I love hearing the sound of the rainstorm in the background as Mr. Evers records! How it adds to the mood!

fascinating story

(5 stars)

darthlaurel

Very abrupt ending. That surprised me. I enjoyed the story.....subtlety and satire.

bizarre

(1.5 stars)

FBL

still enjoy Simon Evers reading...

As always, a superb reader is Simon Evers

(4 stars)

dahszil

and quite a fine voice actor or mimic. His various character vocalizations were superb. Loved the way he read how a "street person"(and or poor person) would speak and quite amusing his vocalization of the one woman who was involved in these token charities. One of the best books i've ever read in this genre. Although I suppose you could label it several genre's: family drama, social reform on a personal scale, psychological, criticism of class et al. Galsworthy, a product of the upper class, is mostly subtly critical but at times rightly angry at the pettiness and trivialities of the elite. In this book, like Thomas Hardy in his Wessex novels(albeit set in rural England), one of the foundations of Fraternity is sympathy.... or as put today in political correct lockstep "empathy" ( like "other directed " little to do with compassion but more to do with "pulling strings" of each other: See David Reisman's social psychological critique "the lonely crowd", 1948). And like Hardy is a master of metaphor's, similes, analysis, and details, turns of phrases. In my opinion too many take the writing as dense sorrowful reading. On the contrary there is much humor here. And the ending it seems is not definite tragedy but leaves one to wonder, of Which i like better than a definite conclusion in this novel. Although in this novel I wish Hillary Dallison would have run off with the young model from the lower class. I am a bit confused by the conclusion but it seems Mr. Dallison neither goes back to his wife nor runs off with the model. He takes a third way and gets away from all of it. Hillary Dallison is a very sympathetic character. The one critique I have of Galsworthy's Fraternity He doesn't give really any biography of the "the little" model. , And I just loved the "elder"(to me a term more respectable than senior citizen or old. Most of our aged people should be listened to, respected for their experience, wisdom and we need to help them with with their physical chores and aging debilities) lovable eccentric Mr. Stone. HIs behavior is hillarious at times and some of his damning maxim's of religion and civilization as received from the power mongers to oppress, corrupt, and exploit humanity, profound, correct and compassionate. All work is respectable and all people in society should have a citizens income. Personally i think a janitor does more important work than as ceo. Banksters and Financial schemers eventually destroy the livelihood for the majority of us. This book never mentions political reform. charity is the icing on the cake but cannot sustain society. Don't just thank Beveridge or FDR but thank thank even more the workers struggles witch pushed for a decent standard that the UK, US and most Western countries achieved from the bottom up. Since the The thatcher reagan reactionary revolution, and that austerity continued by New Labour almost as much as the Tories in the UK and the democrats almost as much as the GOP. in the US, the masters of finance, banking and corporations, and an insane military budget are pushing us back to Dickens' times. And we have a fascist lunatic "elected" as president here in the US. I congratulate Speaker of the Parliament Mr. Bercow for his being against tyrant Donald Trump speaking in the British Parliament. Not just for moral, ethical reasons should we not bail out the banks and other financial interests out but because the governments just don' have the money for another crash which will be much worse than 2008 and worse than 1929. THE BANKS, FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, MUST BE NATIONALIZED NOW BEFORE THE NEXT CRASH. ITS NOT A QUESTION OF IF BUT WHEN. AND WITH SO MUCH INSTABILITY CAUSED IN THE WORLD SINCE THE END OF CLINTON'S TERM, BUSH AND BLAIR'S HEINOUS WARS, AND THE TAXPAYER BAILOUTS OF WALL STREET AND "THE CITY", we must act now to nationalize not only the market but essential manufacturing, services, housing, farming. THE 2007-2008 bailout was like giving money to the mafia to keep acting like the mafia. the called it nationalization but it wasn't. this time the world's wealth must be managed by the people, the 99% and their must be a a much closer wealth redistribution between the workers and the 1%. that means the majority of the world's wealth in the hands of about a 100 men and corporations, much of it should be taken away from them, most of them put in prison, and redistributed to the working and middle class and to the professionals who have utility: nurses, doctors, fire fighters, janitors, farm workers, scientists, technicians, bus drivers, teachers,and so and so forth. the free market should only be for luxury goods(and computers and the internet are not luxury goods anymore. they are necessities and should be public goods and services)

Fraternity

(5 stars)

TheBookworm

Simon not only does his usual consummate job of narration but also provides a well-crafted summary that is almost Johnsonian in its terseness. I was wondering how i would describe this book, so thanks for that! Galsworthy's characters are complex and sometimes rather annoying. I get rather impatient with their denseness and in particular wanted to give young Thyme a kick in the rear. But i suppose that's how authors create their effect... Look out for old Mr. Stone who bathed daily in the Serpentine and was writing a strange mystical-political book. We Brits certainly love our eccentrics! TheBookworm (Manchester, UK)