{"id":1354,"date":"2019-01-16T15:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T22:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1354"},"modified":"2019-01-05T16:36:16","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T23:36:16","slug":"book-the-graduate-1963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/16\/book-the-graduate-1963\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: The Graduate (1963)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/images.gr-assets.com\/books\/1348351450l\/7520712.jpg\" alt=\"The Graduate\" width=\"276\" height=\"400\" \/>The Graduate<br \/>\n<\/u><\/strong>Year: 1963<br \/>\nAuthor: Charles Webb<br \/>\nLength: 366 minutes \/ 6.10 hours<\/p>\n<p>If I could condense this book down to a single phrase, it would be \u201cWhat?\u201d It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t understand this book, it\u2019s more that this single word\/question was\u00a0used for every third line of dialogue. Not only was this incredibly annoying to read\u2014as every character seemed to have hearing problems that required the other speaker to repeat themselves\u2014but it just seemed to pad out an already weak plot. I have no idea how this book became so famous that it led to a much superior film adaptation, but now I know that nobody should bother reading this book because of its inspiration for the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s talk about character motivations next. Nothing ever made any sense. Sure, there\u2019s a bit of existential ennui involved with finishing something you excel in (school, in this case), but the actions of the main character only make sense up until a point. Once we hit the third act, there\u2019s just a series of random actions that aren\u2019t grounded in reality. This is also not to mention that the characters around him, especially the primary love interest, also make illogical decisions that aren\u2019t founded in any sort of reality. At least this book is short enough that you\u2019re not going to waste much time reading it.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I\u2019m just missing the point of this book. Perhaps it\u2019s an examination of the consequences and realizations that come from living a life that seems to have no meaning. I mean, I get the counter-play between the newly-disillusioned Benjamin and the almost permanently-disillusioned Mrs. Robinson; but when the entire thing is filled with awkward and nervous dialogue that constantly repeats itself, I can\u2019t help but think that there isn\u2019t anything significant there. Even the ending was so abrupt and unfulfilling that I had to thank the movie version for its subtleness in revealing the characters\u2019 realization of what they\u2019ve done.<\/p>\n<p>A truly sub-par story that was made into an above average movie, I give\u00a0<em>The Graduate<\/em>\u00a02.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\" \/><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Graduate Year: 1963 Author: Charles Webb Length: 366 minutes \/ 6.10 hours If I could condense this book down to a single phrase, it would be \u201cWhat?\u201d It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t understand this book, it\u2019s more that this single word\/question was\u00a0used for every third line of dialogue. Not only was this incredibly annoying [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,54],"tags":[1620,90,1547,1623,55,1622,553,8,1621],"class_list":["post-1354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2-0-stars","category-book","tag-1620","tag-adaptation","tag-adultery","tag-annoying","tag-book","tag-charles-webb","tag-college","tag-review","tag-the-graduate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1355,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1354\/revisions\/1355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}