TY  - BOOK
AU  - Saxton,Alexander
TI  - The Great Midland
AV  - PZ 3. S27356 Gt 1948
PY  - 1948///
CY  - New York, NY
PB  - Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
N1  - senstive language
N2  - This novel is the second work of a serious young writer of importance. Grand Crossing, Alexander Saxton's first book, had a good critical reception and marked him as a novelist of real promise. The Great Midland takes him into a broader field, with a theme of wider moment and a surer, deeper treatment. This is the compelling story of a man and woman bound to each other by love, but wedged apart by other forces almost as powerful. Dave Spaas is a railroad worker, deeply sensitive to every leading social and economic issue of our time. His wife Stephanie is a railroader's daugher; but her taste of university life, and her affair with a young professer, leaver her still confused and uneasy between two views of life. Yet so strong is the claim Dave has on Stephanie -- the claim of deep love and mutual background -- that again and again she turns to him for the strength and tenderness she needs. Dave, too, finds that without Stephanie all his aims in life seem empty. Theirs is a love story of reality and genuine significance. The world in which Dave and Stephanie look for understanding is peopled by other as perplexed as they. There is Pledger McAdams, the Negro car-cleaner, whose race blocks promotion for him. There is Eddie Spars, Dave's uncle, old-time migrant of the rails, with his shiftless ways, his guitar, and his impossible dreams. There is Roman Koviak, Stephanie's Father, who lives and dies with the railroad. And there is Morgan, the sadist who shoots to kill. Looming over all is the railroad itself, the Great Midland, symbol of big business and the American heartland it serves; while the great problems of the modern world -- labor and capital, radcalism and reaction, war and peace have their share in moulding the loves of these ordinary people. Brutal yet tender, this novel will appeal to every reader of realistic fiction. This is not sensational realism. It is authentic. Alexander Sacton knows what he has to say, and his understanding of people and his extraordinary command of their language drive his purpose home. The bold exploitation of crucial ideas in The Great Midland will be hotly debated, and its brilliant characterization and narrative power will find an audience everywhere.
UR  - https://openlibrary.org/works/OL2638461W/The_great_midland?edition=key%3A/books/OL661561M
ER  -