The Graduate by Charles Webb

A book which has been mightily overshadowed by the film which was based upon it. The novel deals neatly with the disillusion, disappointment and ennui that most people feel when they finally stumble out of full time education. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the film, which, despite a fine soundtrack and pretty good performance from Dustin Hoffman, has aged quite badly. Likewise the book is very much rooted in the America of the 50s & 60s. The dialogue is punchy, but overuses rhetorical questioning. There are many ways of portraying a persons state of mind and the effect that they have on those around them, and it feels a bit clumsy that the author invokes the frustration of those around Ben by frustrating the reader. When Ben is annoying people in the story he is directly annoying the reader also. Yet the reasons for his behaviour or the reasons why those around him act in the ways they do are never dealt with and only very mildly implied. In life it is virtually impossible to stumble along and ignore totally the reasons why people behave and feel as they do. Yet in this book it is nigh on impossible to see why the heroine acts as she does. Whilst many (men) would say that it is simply an accurate portrayal of the lengths that women will go to to ignore the faults of those with whom they are infatuated, none of the subtleties are ever revealed and the resounding impression is that the characters in this novel are simply props with no life or breath of their own. A quick and not entirely unsatisfactory read, my opinion is that this book will only be remembered because of the film it spawned.