An aimless work of stark realism, "Studs Lonigan" has the distinction of being one of the earliest Irish American bildungsromans, a trilogy of novels covering the later half of its title character's life from his grammar school graduation in 1916 to his ignominious death in the depths of the Great Depression. In between there's a lot of drinking, fighting, singing, grumbling, praying, implied swearing and sexual activity, bad prose, and not much else.

William "Studs" Lonigan is an archetypal boy growing up in a tough working-class Irish neighborhood in Chicago's south side. The oldest of four children, Studs is a lazy student and, despite his mother's wish for him to enter the priesthood, flounders in high school and wastes his time hanging out in poolrooms and getting in scraps, ultimately going to work for his father's painting company. Farrell successfully turns the Chicago neighborhoods into interesting fictional settings, but he never manages to elevate Studs and his boorish friends above the flatness and dullness of negative stereotypes.

Farrell paints a candid, savage portrait of racism and bigotry in the Irish American enclave. There is a genuine fear of blacks moving into and taking over their neighborhoods, and a distrust of Jews as real estate agents who are orchestrating this migration and as "international bankers" who have sunk America into its Depression. To be fair, these sentiments are not unanimous among the Irish characters in the book, but they constitute a world view expressed by Studs's financially embattled father and shared by many sympathizers.

The book's prose matches its protagonist: simple, gritty, and slovenly. Farrell writes in the third person, but the voice is Studs's; the young man's thoughts concerning life, love, and sex are of the most basic. The third novel of the trilogy, "Judgment Day," is the best, in which the writing matures with Studs as he becomes engaged to a nice girl, worries about his weak heart and his inability to stop smoking, and struggles to find lucrative work during the draconian economic times. Here the book also achieves a sort of dramatic crescendo, as general anxiety about the Depression, panic over closing banks and plunging stocks, and paranoia over "Reds" combine with the ominous state of Studs's health in a nightmare of Dreiseresque misery.

The book has some fine passages, but my overall opinion is lukewarm at best. The simplistic prose, although maybe a stylistic necessity, is no fun when it is used at such length to document a life as uneventful as Studs's; given the clownishness of the violent scenes, at times it's like reading a comic book without the pictures. The book doesn't seem to have any purpose other than to introduce an Irish milieu into the American literary canon -- it certainly doesn't bother to give Studs's life any purpose -- and that just isn't enough to sustain a 900-page novel.

The "Studs Lonigan" trilogy, James T. Farrell's forgotten masterwork, deserves a new generation of readers desiring assurance that ours is not the first generation to experience the hopelessness of youth without direction and life without purpose. The three self-standing novels follow the youth, adolescence, and manhood of a Chicago Irish-Catholic named William "Studs" Lonigan. What shocked readers when the novels were first published in the early 1930s--a brutal street life characterized by cigarettes and alcohol, senseless violence and casual sex--strikes the reader today for the directness and honesty with which Farrell treats the lives of lower-middle-class youth caught up in the whirlwind of social and economic transformations that followed the First World War.

Despite his self-destruction, Studs remains a sympathetic character. Unlike some of his friends, he does, at least occasionally, have a clue as to what is bringing him to his "Judgment Day" (the title of the last novel). Even so, conquering the limitations of his upbringing, which are only compounded by the miseries of the Depression, remains an overwhelming challenge.

Farrell's Chicago is as important a character as Studs. The city is a living organism that grows, changes, shows its beauties (in some of the author's most lyrical moments), threatens, and, ultimately, continues to exist oblivious of its inhabitants.

Perhaps Farrell overdoes the slang, and occasionally a scene is all too predictable. But not always, especially as Studs comes to adulthood and is increasingly torn by conflicting temptations and an ingrained desire for respectability.

Together with John Dos Passos, his better- remembered contemporary, James Farrell has captured a memorable segment of American life with techniques that include variations on Dos Passos' newreels. Unlike the author of "U.S.A.", however, Farrell leaves us with a memorable character who demands our attention just as forcibly as when he was a cake-eater walking Chicago's Fifty-eighth Street.

Many a person may be intimidated by the length of this great work of literature, and never take the time to read it. Do not be one of those unfortunate souls. This book is truly not to be missed.

While pieces of the book focus on depression era politics and problems (for a more detailed analysis of the plot, see Mike O Farrell's review below), the themes that run throughout this novel have been with us since the very beginning of time. At its heart, this story is about a young man who has always imagined greatness for himself. He lives deep inside the recesses of his own mind (as we all do) and accordingly finds it hard to believe that he is not unique, somehow different from all of his friends, family, and acquaintances. James T. Farrell's tragedy unfolds as Studs slowly comes to realize that he is just another guy, making his own way through this life and trying to make just a little bit of sense out of it all.

If you have come to literature to find some answers, this is probably not your book. Like all great novelists, Farrell is simply showing you the way he sees things, and bringing up enough raw material from the detritus of life to make you stop, and think, and wonder.

What an appropriate title to get a message accross. I was especially moved by what Mr. JamesDouglas said about using more sympathetic words to describe the word black, since it is a race of people we are talking about. I was touch by chapter five, although sad, the story did get the message accross. By the way, why isn't there a picture of the cover of this book?

Although the basic priciples of logic are presented in a clear and orderly manner, this otherwise well-written text is marred by its overtly Christian agenda. A large percentage of the statements used as examples within the text are biblically derived. The secular student is not likely to have sufficient familiarity with these biblical references to judge whether a given statement is accurate or inaccurate (something the author seems to take for granted). Additionally, and most importantly, matters of faith are, by definition, beyond reason and logic and are therefore incompatible with the aims of a logic text. How is a secular student to judge the "truth value" of a statement such as, "Jesus healed the blind," or "The Bible is the word of God?"

This workbook is designed to teach logic, and to do it from an unapologetically Christian slant. Chocked full of easy-to-understand lessons, each section ends with one (and sometimes two) exercises. This book is well designed, and should be considered by anyone interested in teaching his or her children formal logic.

My one and only complaint against this book is that the exercises do not include an answer page. But, I found the exercises easy enough that I could do my own correcting. So, I must say that I found this to be a great book and an excellent tool. I highly recommend it.

In a day where feelings are often thought to be more important than truth, Christians need to be prepared. This book begins that process. Taking the basics of formal logic from a Christian perspective, this Mars Hill text is easy to use and is suited for ages 13+. The explanation of concepts is done adequately, and the review exercises are helpful in mastering each lesson. There is also a book on intermediate logic to supplement the ideas learned in this introduction. This book has been written for Christians, so non-Christians may have a different opinion on its quality than I do. However, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to begin learning formal logic.