A Novel About "Ordinary People" Is Designed to Be Tension-Free.
The article critically examines Judith Guest’s novel *Ordinary People*, highlighting its status as a widely publicized bestseller about a typical American family coping with pain and healing. It discusses the novel’s unique publishing history as the first unsolicited manuscript accepted by Viking in...
| Publicado en: | Pennsylvania Literary Journal (2151-3066) Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 36 - 38 |
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| Formato: | Book Review |
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Pennsylvania Literary Journal
Summer2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=196128616&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 196128616 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 21513066 AX4H jtl: Pennsylvania Literary Journal (2151-3066) issn: 21513066 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Summer2026 vid: 18 iid: 2 pid: 40995 pub: Pennsylvania Literary Journal artinfo: ui: 196128616 ppf: 36 ppct: 2 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 87KB tig: atl: A Novel About "Ordinary People" Is Designed to Be Tension-Free. aug: au: Faktorovich, Anna su: Criticism History of publishing Mental illness Literary criticism Fiction Authors Families sug: subj: Criticism History of publishing Mental illness Literary criticism Fiction Authors Families ab: The article critically examines Judith Guest’s novel *Ordinary People*, highlighting its status as a widely publicized bestseller about a typical American family coping with pain and healing. It discusses the novel’s unique publishing history as the first unsolicited manuscript accepted by Viking in over 25 years, noting the subsequent closure of slush-pile submissions by major publishers. The review questions the novel’s literary merit, describing its treatment of mental illness as lacking emotional depth and criticizing character development, particularly of the female protagonist. Overall, the article views *Ordinary People* as an overrated work included in the Penguin Classics series more due to hype than quality. pubtype: Review doctype: Book Review src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Pennsylvania Literary Journal (2151-3066) is the property of Pennsylvania Literary Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Pennsylvania Literary Journal holder: Pennsylvania Literary Journal dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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