Blogger “bodhimalik” describes his own experiences with Tarkington, which mirror mine from many years ago. After having first thrilled to Tarkington via the Penrod books in school libraries, he stopped reading Tarkington after being turned off by Seventeen… which I agree is pretty hard to bear at times, particularly for a high schooler. It’s much more entertaining from a fully adult (and parental) perspective. But then… well, I’ll let bodhi say it in his own words.

Nearly one hundred years after Tarkington wrote The Turmoil, China is experiencing very much the same kind of massive growth — fueled by the internationalization of their economy — that America once did. Was it horrible for us then, just as it is for China now? In a way, yes; and Tarkington (as well as other writers, such as Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis) admirably documented the ways in which it was.