An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

Deserves to be better known, 18 Jun 1999
This is in my opinion a classic of American literature. While it fits into the coming of age genre, it also transcends it. I especially like the way Powell gives a humanity to all her characters, even those who mistreat the girls. For instance, the father in this book believes he is doing right by his daughters, but he doesn't understand that buying them candy and hair ribbons doesn't make up for never seeing them. This is a very powerful and moving book, very realistic. It should be right up there with the classics.

A bittersweet memory of a childhood far away, 10 Jun 1997
In this autobiographical novel, Powell gives us a wistful, moving look back at her upbringing, which was not an easy one. Although the tone and structure bear a very heavy debt to Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," this one stands on its own as a coming of age tale, convincingly told from a young girl's point of view. I had never heard of Powell before picking up this book, and her name goes unmentioned in most critical surveys of 20th century American literature, which is tragic. She's an excellent, evocative writer who deserves a wider following. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Deserves to be in "the canon"., 20 Apr 1997
"My Home is Far Away" is a child's eye view of growing up in the changing America of the 1920's. The prose is not-a-wasted-word sharp, and it picks you up and doesn't put you down til you're finished with the book. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt or Main Street. But Dawn Powell treats her subjects a little more gently, even while portraying the hypocracy and selfishness of the characters. I've been recommending this book to everyone who asks.

A haunting autobiographical novel of childhood, 30 Jan 1997
This is a novel closely based on the author's childhood, growing up in rural Ohio in the early 20th century. While Dawn Powell uses an adult's language, the perspective is a child's. Although there is nothing monumental about the characters or their fates, the depth to which the reader sees and understands them is a testament to the author's skill. The writing is exquisite and the story is gripping in its depiction of a child's resilience in the face of adults who fail her at almost every turn. I finished the book weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

Deserves to be better known, 18 Jun 1999
This is in my opinion a classic of American literature. While it fits into the coming of age genre, it also transcends it. I especially like the way Powell gives a humanity to all her characters, even those who mistreat the girls. For instance, the father in this book believes he is doing right by his daughters, but he doesn't understand that buying them candy and hair ribbons doesn't make up for never seeing them. This is a very powerful and moving book, very realistic. It should be right up there with the classics.

A bittersweet memory of a childhood far away, 10 Jun 1997
In this autobiographical novel, Powell gives us a wistful, moving look back at her upbringing, which was not an easy one. Although the tone and structure bear a very heavy debt to Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," this one stands on its own as a coming of age tale, convincingly told from a young girl's point of view. I had never heard of Powell before picking up this book, and her name goes unmentioned in most critical surveys of 20th century American literature, which is tragic. She's an excellent, evocative writer who deserves a wider following. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Deserves to be in "the canon"., 20 Apr 1997
"My Home is Far Away" is a child's eye view of growing up in the changing America of the 1920's. The prose is not-a-wasted-word sharp, and it picks you up and doesn't put you down til you're finished with the book. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt or Main Street. But Dawn Powell treats her subjects a little more gently, even while portraying the hypocracy and selfishness of the characters. I've been recommending this book to everyone who asks.

A haunting autobiographical novel of childhood, 30 Jan 1997
This is a novel closely based on the author's childhood, growing up in rural Ohio in the early 20th century. While Dawn Powell uses an adult's language, the perspective is a child's. Although there is nothing monumental about the characters or their fates, the depth to which the reader sees and understands them is a testament to the author's skill. The writing is exquisite and the story is gripping in its depiction of a child's resilience in the face of adults who fail her at almost every turn. I finished the book weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

Turn of the Mid-Century, 08 Jun 1999
Like Kurt Anderson's recent novel, this gem satirizes the New York media scene, but it takes place during the post-WWII years. The author's story holds up and does not feel dated, and her characterizations are dead on (especially good for laughs is the aptly-named airhead Dodo).

The late Dawn Powell deserves the praise reaped with the rediscovery of her novels. I am already considering which one I will read next.

Don't listen to people from California, 07 Jan 1999
This book is a really fun look, a slice of life in NYC and its publishing world in post-war America. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't thoroughly enjoy not only this story, this satire, but the writing as a whole. This, among other Dawn Powell books, is what I recommend to people looking for something to read that won't bore them to tears!

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

Deserves to be better known, 18 Jun 1999
This is in my opinion a classic of American literature. While it fits into the coming of age genre, it also transcends it. I especially like the way Powell gives a humanity to all her characters, even those who mistreat the girls. For instance, the father in this book believes he is doing right by his daughters, but he doesn't understand that buying them candy and hair ribbons doesn't make up for never seeing them. This is a very powerful and moving book, very realistic. It should be right up there with the classics.

A bittersweet memory of a childhood far away, 10 Jun 1997
In this autobiographical novel, Powell gives us a wistful, moving look back at her upbringing, which was not an easy one. Although the tone and structure bear a very heavy debt to Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," this one stands on its own as a coming of age tale, convincingly told from a young girl's point of view. I had never heard of Powell before picking up this book, and her name goes unmentioned in most critical surveys of 20th century American literature, which is tragic. She's an excellent, evocative writer who deserves a wider following. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Deserves to be in "the canon"., 20 Apr 1997
"My Home is Far Away" is a child's eye view of growing up in the changing America of the 1920's. The prose is not-a-wasted-word sharp, and it picks you up and doesn't put you down til you're finished with the book. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt or Main Street. But Dawn Powell treats her subjects a little more gently, even while portraying the hypocracy and selfishness of the characters. I've been recommending this book to everyone who asks.

A haunting autobiographical novel of childhood, 30 Jan 1997
This is a novel closely based on the author's childhood, growing up in rural Ohio in the early 20th century. While Dawn Powell uses an adult's language, the perspective is a child's. Although there is nothing monumental about the characters or their fates, the depth to which the reader sees and understands them is a testament to the author's skill. The writing is exquisite and the story is gripping in its depiction of a child's resilience in the face of adults who fail her at almost every turn. I finished the book weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

Turn of the Mid-Century, 08 Jun 1999
Like Kurt Anderson's recent novel, this gem satirizes the New York media scene, but it takes place during the post-WWII years. The author's story holds up and does not feel dated, and her characterizations are dead on (especially good for laughs is the aptly-named airhead Dodo).

The late Dawn Powell deserves the praise reaped with the rediscovery of her novels. I am already considering which one I will read next.

Don't listen to people from California, 07 Jan 1999
This book is a really fun look, a slice of life in NYC and its publishing world in post-war America. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't thoroughly enjoy not only this story, this satire, but the writing as a whole. This, among other Dawn Powell books, is what I recommend to people looking for something to read that won't bore them to tears!

Candid, tough, sensitive writing., 28 Aug 1998
Thank you, Steerforth & Tim Page (and Gore Vidal) for making the work of Dawn Powell available. Of all her books, I like the diaries the best--so candid, such a grown-up view of the world; her comments on writing, the New York literary world, and the gritty beauty and ugliness of New York are always acute. Her grasp of the complexity of relationships is amazing-her comments about her husband Joe, her sweetheart, and her child are poignant reminders that life need not be perfect to be rich. Here is the voice of a remarkable woman, one of the most clear-eyed American writers of the twentieth-century. She captures a particular New York moment as does no other writer, and that's saying something.

I am somehow reminded of another great writer, another unsentimental woman: Natalia Ginzburg. An Italian, her work and Powell's are very different, yet they share a rare candor and stoicism.

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

Deserves to be better known, 18 Jun 1999
This is in my opinion a classic of American literature. While it fits into the coming of age genre, it also transcends it. I especially like the way Powell gives a humanity to all her characters, even those who mistreat the girls. For instance, the father in this book believes he is doing right by his daughters, but he doesn't understand that buying them candy and hair ribbons doesn't make up for never seeing them. This is a very powerful and moving book, very realistic. It should be right up there with the classics.

A bittersweet memory of a childhood far away, 10 Jun 1997
In this autobiographical novel, Powell gives us a wistful, moving look back at her upbringing, which was not an easy one. Although the tone and structure bear a very heavy debt to Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," this one stands on its own as a coming of age tale, convincingly told from a young girl's point of view. I had never heard of Powell before picking up this book, and her name goes unmentioned in most critical surveys of 20th century American literature, which is tragic. She's an excellent, evocative writer who deserves a wider following. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Deserves to be in "the canon"., 20 Apr 1997
"My Home is Far Away" is a child's eye view of growing up in the changing America of the 1920's. The prose is not-a-wasted-word sharp, and it picks you up and doesn't put you down til you're finished with the book. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt or Main Street. But Dawn Powell treats her subjects a little more gently, even while portraying the hypocracy and selfishness of the characters. I've been recommending this book to everyone who asks.

A haunting autobiographical novel of childhood, 30 Jan 1997
This is a novel closely based on the author's childhood, growing up in rural Ohio in the early 20th century. While Dawn Powell uses an adult's language, the perspective is a child's. Although there is nothing monumental about the characters or their fates, the depth to which the reader sees and understands them is a testament to the author's skill. The writing is exquisite and the story is gripping in its depiction of a child's resilience in the face of adults who fail her at almost every turn. I finished the book weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

Turn of the Mid-Century, 08 Jun 1999
Like Kurt Anderson's recent novel, this gem satirizes the New York media scene, but it takes place during the post-WWII years. The author's story holds up and does not feel dated, and her characterizations are dead on (especially good for laughs is the aptly-named airhead Dodo).

The late Dawn Powell deserves the praise reaped with the rediscovery of her novels. I am already considering which one I will read next.

Don't listen to people from California, 07 Jan 1999
This book is a really fun look, a slice of life in NYC and its publishing world in post-war America. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't thoroughly enjoy not only this story, this satire, but the writing as a whole. This, among other Dawn Powell books, is what I recommend to people looking for something to read that won't bore them to tears!

Candid, tough, sensitive writing., 28 Aug 1998
Thank you, Steerforth & Tim Page (and Gore Vidal) for making the work of Dawn Powell available. Of all her books, I like the diaries the best--so candid, such a grown-up view of the world; her comments on writing, the New York literary world, and the gritty beauty and ugliness of New York are always acute. Her grasp of the complexity of relationships is amazing-her comments about her husband Joe, her sweetheart, and her child are poignant reminders that life need not be perfect to be rich. Here is the voice of a remarkable woman, one of the most clear-eyed American writers of the twentieth-century. She captures a particular New York moment as does no other writer, and that's saying something.

I am somehow reminded of another great writer, another unsentimental woman: Natalia Ginzburg. An Italian, her work and Powell's are very different, yet they share a rare candor and stoicism.

Lecture on Dawn Powell at NYU, 15 Apr 1999
The Fales Library and the Department of English at New York University cordially invite you to attend the annual Fales Lecture in English Literature. Tim Page, author of Dawn Powell: A Biography will present "Dawn Powell: Bringing Back an American Writer" on Tuesday, April 20, 1999 at 6:30 PM in the Fales Library, 70 Washington Square South, 3rd Floor, New York City.

An unforgettable read, 01 Feb 1999
This book has been well-summarized by the other reviewers. I can only second their recommendations and say that this book is spellbindingly written and contains two extended passages (I will leave it to other readers to find their own favorite parts)that are among the most brilliant writing I have ever encountered. Just be warned that it will break your heart. Now if only Steerforth would reissue her "Story of a Country Boy" which I just found an ancient copy of and which is just as good...

Excellent Book, 26 Jan 1999
This is an extremely well written book. It is the story of a housewife and the local high school Music teacher. Both of whom live in their pasts, which they have embellished to the point of unrecognition. This is what binds them together as they create their "salon". I love Dawn Powell and her real forte is creating these amazing character studies that are both hilarious and pathetic. I would highly recommend this book and any other of Dawn Powell's works

A beautifully written, moving tale., 23 Jan 1999
Written in a simple, lyrical style, this novel is a change of pace from Powell's "New York" novels like "The Locusts Have no King." It's about two 30-something people with thwarted artistic ambitions, stuck in a dreary, isolated small town. They struggle to sustain each other emotionally with fantasies of fame, culture and sophistication. Powell's portrayals of her characters are unsentimental and bittersweet, but full of compassion and timeless insights.Also interesting as a period piece, with details of everyday small-town mid-western life and social attitudes circa 1930. A touching story that will make you want to re-read it to savor the nuances.

Absolutely Wonderful, 17 Jan 1999
Here I am again, the Web's biggest Dawn Powell fan. This is a do not miss novel.The story of a lonely housewife, and her unlikely friendship with the High School music teacher,both of whom imagine themselves to be better than what they really are, is so understandable. It is both touching and pathetic, but, as usual, it is the way Dawn Powell writes that makes this story so unforgettable. This is one of her very best works in my humble opinion. I highly recommend this novel.

AN UNDISCOVERED GEM!, 12 Jan 2008
I`ve never read a Dawn Powell book before and I`m so glad I did - it`s an undiscovered gem - it`s brilliantly written and could have been written yesterday. Dawn shoots down her targets with savage accuracy which is scathing and hilarious by turns, vivedly capturing the villians and inflated egos basking in the febrile atmosphere of New York prior to America entering the Second World War. Amanda Keeler is a study in opportunism, self centredness, and cynicism which may never be equalled - an outstanding achievement!

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

A Cynical View Of Satire, 27 May 2006
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism.'" The Powell Effect is strikingly evident in her handling of the Clare Booth Luce character in her roman à clef "A Time to Be Born." The character is, in every conventional sense, a monster of sexual and literary deception, and a consummate liar and user, yet seen through Powell's clarifying lens her actions become understandable -- one even comes to accord her energies a respect akin to that we have for Becky Sharp. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience.. ." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."

Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.

"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:

"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell

Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06



Dawn Powells "Time to be Born", 28 Jun 2005
Dawn Powell (1896 --1965) is an American novelist whose works have captured some attention in recent years. Powell grew up in a small town in Ohio but spent most of her life in New York City. Her 15 novels are autobiographical. They feature characters who move from the constraints of small-town America to attempt to make their way in New York City. The earlier novels focus on small town life while Powell's later novels are sharp, satiric pictures of New York.

Powell's "A Time to be Born" (1942) takes place in New York City just as the United States is preparing to enter WW II. It is a mixture of cutting satire, a coming-of-age novel, and a comedy of manners. The two major characters are two women who have left the same small Ohio town to come to New York and their varying and interrelated fortunes. The first, Amanda Keeler Evans, has become the wife of a powerful publisher, has written a novel, participates in highly-publicised war relief efforts, and is a syndicated columnist on world affairs (which are written for her). Her childhood friend, Vickie Haven, comes to New York after a failed love affair, and her life becomes intertwined with Amanda. In the complex plot, both women share an apartment, which Amanda uses for an affair with Kenneth Saunders, a lover from the days before her marriage. A triangle develops among Saunders, Amanda, and Vickie.

The book tells the story of Vickie Haven's coming-of-age as she gradually weans herself from dependence on her family in Ohio and from Amanda. She begins to act independently when she takes her own apartment and leaves the situation into which Amanda has manipulated her. As with all Powell's writings, the awakening is only partial and bittersweet.

This book presents an unforgettably picture of a bygone New York City as the United States prepares to enter the war. The story is sharply and wittily told, but there is an undercurrent of sympathy, compassion, worldly-wisdom and perhaps hope.

This novel will interest readers of American literature willing to be adventurous and to explore little-known works of the mid-20th Century.

This is a timeless story of young adulthood., 31 Jan 1999
This novel, set in early World War II, could have been written yesterday. The author masterfully portrays complex characters with ranges of selfishness, naivete, cynicism, humor, everything. It's a great story of twenty-something's making their way in New York City. Enjoy!

Oh so cynical but oh so funny, 20 Jan 1999
This is the first of Dawn Powell's books I have read, and I look forward to reading the rest. It's a hilarious send-up of very recognizable types, as caustic and cynical (and as funny) as H. L. Mencken or Ambrose Bierce has written.

Deserves to be better known, 18 Jun 1999
This is in my opinion a classic of American literature. While it fits into the coming of age genre, it also transcends it. I especially like the way Powell gives a humanity to all her characters, even those who mistreat the girls. For instance, the father in this book believes he is doing right by his daughters, but he doesn't understand that buying them candy and hair ribbons doesn't make up for never seeing them. This is a very powerful and moving book, very realistic. It should be right up there with the classics.

A bittersweet memory of a childhood far away, 10 Jun 1997
In this autobiographical novel, Powell gives us a wistful, moving look back at her upbringing, which was not an easy one. Although the tone and structure bear a very heavy debt to Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," this one stands on its own as a coming of age tale, convincingly told from a young girl's point of view. I had never heard of Powell before picking up this book, and her name goes unmentioned in most critical surveys of 20th century American literature, which is tragic. She's an excellent, evocative writer who deserves a wider following. I'd recommend this to anyone.

Deserves to be in "the canon"., 20 Apr 1997
"My Home is Far Away" is a child's eye view of growing up in the changing America of the 1920's. The prose is not-a-wasted-word sharp, and it picks you up and doesn't put you down til you're finished with the book. The closest thing I'd compare it to is Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt or Main Street. But Dawn Powell treats her subjects a little more gently, even while portraying the hypocracy and selfishness of the characters. I've been recommending this book to everyone who asks.

A haunting autobiographical novel of childhood, 30 Jan 1997
This is a novel closely based on the author's childhood, growing up in rural Ohio in the early 20th century. While Dawn Powell uses an adult's language, the perspective is a child's. Although there is nothing monumental about the characters or their fates, the depth to which the reader sees and understands them is a testament to the author's skill. The writing is exquisite and the story is gripping in its depiction of a child's resilience in the face of adults who fail her at almost every turn. I finished the book weeks ago and am still thinking about it.

Turn of the Mid-Century, 08 Jun 1999
Like Kurt Anderson's recent novel, this gem satirizes the New York media scene, but it takes place during the post-WWII years. The author's story holds up and does not feel dated, and her characterizations are dead on (especially good for laughs is the aptly-named airhead Dodo).

The late Dawn Powell deserves the praise reaped with the rediscovery of her novels. I am already considering which one I will read next.

Don't listen to people from California, 07 Jan 1999
This book is a really fun look, a slice of life in NYC and its publishing world in post-war America. I can't think of anybody who wouldn't thoroughly enjoy not only this story, this satire, but the writing as a whole. This, among other Dawn Powell books, is what I recommend to people looking for something to read that won't bore them to tears!

Candid, tough, sensitive writing., 28 Aug 1998
Thank you, Steerforth & Tim Page (and Gore Vidal) for making the work of Dawn Powell available. Of all her books, I like the diaries the best--so candid, such a grown-up view of the world; her comments on writing, the New York literary world, and the gritty beauty and ugliness of New York are always acute. Her grasp of the complexity of relationships is amazing-her comments about her husband Joe, her sweetheart, and her child are poignant reminders that life need not be perfect to be rich. Here is the voice of a remarkable woman, one of the most clear-eyed American writers of the twentieth-century. She captures a particular New York moment as does no other writer, and that's saying something.

I am somehow reminded of another great writer, another unsentimental woman: Natalia Ginzburg. An Italian, her work and Powell's are very different, yet they share a rare candor and stoicism.

Lecture on Dawn Powell at NYU, 15 Apr 1999
The Fales Library and the Department of English at New York University cordially invite you to attend the annual Fales Lecture in English Literature. Tim Page, author of Dawn Powell: A Biography will present "Dawn Powell: Bringing Back an American Writer" on Tuesday, April 20, 1999 at 6:30 PM in the Fales Library, 70 Washington Square South, 3rd Floor, New York City.

American Classic, 25 Jul 1999
This novel of early 20th century Ohio deserves a place with the novels of Willa Cather and Theodore Dreiser. Unlike Dawn Powell's satirical New York novels, this is a straightforward and touching story of a young man growing up and growing out of a stifling small town. The story paints a wonderful picture of a simpler time in our country. This portrait, along with Powell's knack for characterization and interesting plot turns, make the book a treasure.

I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN, 02 Jun 1999
Dawn Powell is without a doubt one of the most remarkable writers of this century. Anyone who wants to know how this country truly looked, sounded, and felt in the 30's, 40's & 50's owes it to themselves to stock up on her books. Her New York novels, like "The Locusts Have No King", can be almost savage in their bitingly hilarious portayals of life in mid-century Manhattan and Greenwich Village. "Dance Night" is something else, entirely. Powell brings the grubby town of Lamptown, Ohio to aching life; you won't soon forget her finely-etched characters and their desperate efforts to create some happiness among the cargo trains and factory whistles and backsteet affairs that define the limits of their lives at the dawn of the Great Depression. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Powell fans may want to order a copy of "The Best of Dawn Powell", as it contains "Dance Night", "Turn Magic Wheel", and a collection of short stories.