Talk:Strangers and Brothers

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The New Men[edit]

I read -- and enjoyed -- several of Snow's novels many years ago (getting on thirty, I think). What I found ironic in reading The New Men is that novelists are often accused of over-dramatising real events for fictional purposes, but Snow's fictional account under-dramatizes the British role in the development of nuclear reactors and the atomic bomb during WWII -- the actual history is considerably more exciting than Snow made it sound in this novel. To compare, Nuel Pharr Davis's dual biography of Ernest Lawrence and Robert Oppenheimer, Lawrence and Oppenheimer (1968) is actual (related) history which is written in a compelling "novelistic" style. 137.82.188.68 04:11, 21 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Literary judgments[edit]

I agree that this article is a review of the Strangers and Brothers series, and as such has the disadvantage of being largely comprised of literary judgments that are wholly subjective.

In fact, I write this because I disagree with them. For example, the author says "The novels dealing with Lewis Eliot's private life (Time of Hope, Homecomings, Last Things) are generally the weakest of the series" and "He [Snow] is not so much at home with the emotional currents of family life". In my opinion Snow's minutely detailed analysis and profound understanding of the emotional currents of family and other personal relationships are perhaps his greatest strengths. I feel he is almost Proustian in his powers of observation and his psychological acuity. In "Time of Hope" his description of Lewis Eliot's parents and aunt is exceptional, and indeed the novels dealing with the protagonist's private life are the ones I prefer.

This is evidence that the article is one that, rather than providing facts and references to critical opinion as a matter of the books' history, seeks to present the article author's own critique as definitive. Rather than informing readers, this risks annoying them if they happen to disagree. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tstorer (talk • contribs) 12:39, 25 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]