In This Our Life Author:Ellen Glasgow 1942 Pulitzer Prize winner. — Quotes excerpted from a contemporary review by James Southall Wilson: — "In This Our Life" tells the story of a group of people in modern Queenborough (or Richmond, if you please), Virginia, "a community where families were still reckoned with, though the nature of the reckoning had altered from intangible to tangible... more » values." It does deal with the poor—as well as with the very rich. It is a story of bitter, honest realism, dealing with people whose creeds are dead, whose rites are dead—and their social order, too—and who have failed to build new creeds and a new decent social order. Even the "trail of smoke from the old altars" only blows into their eyes to blind them.
Tightly woven together, the threads of the narrative form a pattern that is the triumph of a practical artist's skill. Yet the skill is that of an intriguing storyteller, too; for the interest never flags as the tense situations rapidly dissolve and flow into resulting situations tenser and more moving. It is easy to read; it has rapid movement; it has spice, and daring, and beauty of style; it has vivid characterization; it is a challenge to this generation and it raises questions to be pondered over for tomorrow.« less