The City of Fire
Excerpt: ... sinned against God and his better self, and had begun his eternal life on earth. It was too late ever to turn back. "All Hope abandon, ye who enter here." He had read it and defied it. He had entered knowing what he was about, and thinking, poor fool that he was, that he was doing a wise and noble thing for the sake of another. Over in the little parsonage, the white souled girl was walking in an earthly heaven. Ah! There was nothing, nothing they had in common now any more. She lived in the City of Hope and he in the City of Fire. He flung out the book from him and dropped his face into his hands crying softly under his breath, "Oh, Lynn, Lynn-Marilyn!" XV For one instant Lynn stood against the closed door, flaming with anger, her eyes flashing fire as they well knew how to flash at times. Then suddenly her lips set close in a fine control the fire died out of her eyes, she drew a deep breath, and a quick whimsical smile lighted up her face, which nevertheless did not look in the least like one subdued: "You know I could get very angry at that if I chose and we'd have all kinds of a disagreeable time, but I think it would be a little pleasanter for us both if you would cut that out, don't you?" She said it in a cool little voice that sounded like one in entire command of the situation, and Opal turned around and stared at her admiringly. Then she laughed one of her wild silvery laughs that made them say she had a lute-like voice, and sauntered over toward her hostess: "You certainly are a queer girl!" she commented, "I suppose it would be better to be friends, inasmuch as we're to be roommates. Will you smoke with me?" and out from the depths of a beaded affair that was a part of her frock and yet looked more like a bag than a pocket, she drew forth a gold cigarette case and held it out. Marilyn controlled the growing contempt in her face and answered with spirit: "No, I don't smoke. And you won't smoke either-not in here! I'm sorry to seem...
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This book is a hypocrite.
...or, rather, the author was so focused on the “worldly issues” in front of her face that she couldn't even see the massive problems with her worldview and her plot. Spoilers may occur naturally in the course of this rant review. Click “more” with caution.
Scene first. We have the young antihero, a teenaged and mischievous boy, creeping around looking for something to do and hearing folks plot mischief. Does he tell the police? Nope. He decides to line his own pocket and play hooky after agreeing to commit a crime. Getting paid for a crime is about as bad as doing the crime, silly Billy. During this entire passage I was shocked to find that he repeatedly uses minor swears, peppered across nearly every page of the book, h* and d* alike, with lots of gosh and darn and so on for good measure.
Scene two. The heroine–the Sunday-school teacher extraordinaire, the beautiful maiden, the talented church organist, the apple of the eye and only child of her parents, a pastor and his wife.
Scene three. The hero–a prodigal who stole the heart of the fair maiden in her girlhood and is inherently ignorant of this fact. War veteran, former POW, and sole prop of his widowed mother. Prime idol of the wayward Billy.
To put it briefly, Billy gets his money and tries to foil the trap he got paid to set, but it closes fast with his own dear friend in it. Henceforth Mark has no alibi except for Billy's, and Billy can't tell because of the crime. The real target of the crime, a rich profligate, arrives in Sunday Corners very drunk and in a bad way.
What GLH portrays very clearly in this book as evil are:
+drinking
+smoking
+lying
+dressing too scantily
+dancing
+entering a bar
+too much money not used for charity
+being friendly to anyone who does any of the above
+also gossip, but you can still be friendly to those
What happens that I was hoping would be addressed, which wasn't:
+Lynn is beautiful and smart and has the power to turn men's heads on sight
+Lynn is an insufferable snob
+It's better to remain pure and reserved than tell the Gospel to a rich would-be adulteress
+While the preacher immediately helps the pampered rich kid sober up and heal, telling him about God, he has apparently left Mark, who he claims to view as an own son, to wander about in the world and doesn't know the state of his soul. The portrayal of this major plot element really left me scratching my head.
+Holy was portrayed as a synonym for good. Yes, there was a salvation message, but it was clear that it was meant in addition to living a perfect life. Only–no one in this book was living a perfect life, except maybe the preacher, but he hadn't preached the Gospel until to Billy and Mark at the very end...if he was their preacher from infancy, why didn't they know it previously? This form of soft legalism really got on my nerves, because at the same time his daughter wasn't perfect either.
+Sainted mother and aunt. Mark's mother, and Billy's aunt, are portrayed as suffering saints. They have no clue how to war for these kids and they are supposedly strong Christians but without any impulse to give strong Bible lessons to the son/nephew. What was that supposed to mean? They seem to be following actions rather than following God.
+Billy's swearing. Not a single rebuke.
And so on, more of that sort. I finished it, but I didn't want to.
