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:

A few weeks ago I found a book called, “Rare and Used.” This book was about old books, and in it some of Booth’s other books were mentioned, along with a short synopsis of some of them, and the fact that two of them won a Pulitzer Prize and not only that, but he and Upton Sinclair were thought to be the foremost American authors at the time. Both have now gone out of favor. “Hmmmmm,” I thought.

My caretaker, Teresa order a bunch of Booth’s books for me on the Internet and I’ve been reading them ever since. One thing I noticed early on was that every time I started a new one, several pages in, I thought, “This is his best one yet.”

When Teresa started reading The Flirt (the most similar of Tarkington’s books to Seventeen) and found it horrific writing, bodhi reflected:

I started reading what she had just read, and I found that I could visualize Booth’s description of what the man walking down the street was seeing. To me it was akin to watching the beginning of a movie as the credits rolled. I love his descriptions. Especially when he is describing a person’s thoughts.

I had noticed that I would read a few pages and then I would have to stop and ruminate over them. It’s not so much I am thinking about what he says - although there is that, especially when he says something rather clever or humorous. It is more like when you are eating a delicious steak and you have to stop and take a bite of mashed potatoes or candied yams. I wish I could think of a better simile but I can’t. But it is somewhat like that. It’s just too much and I have to stop and rest. There! That’s it.

It will be a sad day when I have read all of his books.

And that, too, has been my experience of Tarkington as an adult. I have been moved by his books — particularly The Conquest of Canaan, Wanton Mally, and Kate Fennigate — like I have by no others.