Sloan Wilson Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Thomas E. Cooney

Critical Essay by Thomas E. Cooney

"A Sense of Values" is another handling by Sloan Wilson of the theme of his earlier novel, "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit." Once again he examines the conflict of ambition with marriage, but this time in a man who has been wildly successful in a corner of the world that Tom Rath in the earlier book partly rejected. Nathan Bond, an artist-poet manqué who finds he has a golden touch as a syndicated cartoonist, is a lot like Rath….

Bond, unlike the temporizing Rath, sacrifices almost everything to his morbid drive for commercial success….

Here, the conscientious reviewer has a problem. He reflects that he has read over 600 pages avidly, but at the end has not felt particularly satisfied. Why? Because "A Sense of Values" is a topical rather than a poetic novel. The topical novel absorbs the reader's interest with details of a life he knows...
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