THE LAST ANGRY MAN

by Gerald Green ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 1956

A newcomer with a book that even in advance in making news. As Book of the Month for February, it is off to a good start. As a book about a doctor- about juvenile delinquency- about a TV program, presumably a pilot program of the ""This is Your Life"" genre -- it has the earmarks of a sure success. I found it at times absorbing -- at times irritating- at times distasteful. But most of the time I was gripped by it. The doctor is- in the eyes of the world- a failure. He hasn't even the sentimental attributes of a dedicated man, who has chosen the slum people as his patients; his profession has his dedication, when the people in Brownville are his patients, he forgets his diatribes against them and gives of his great skill to save them. He has- through his half century of service- made friends- and enemies.... It was a chance accident, a story on an inside page of a raped Negro girl left on his doorstep, that gave jaded Woody Thrasher the inspiration of making him the focus of the first of a new series, Americans, U.S.A. But the doctor put first things first; he proved often difficult, intractable; Woody won through to a painful understanding of the checkered career through the doctor's flashbacks, through his wife, his friends. And he found himself caught up in some of the tragedies of slum Brooklyn's youth gangs and degradation. The dramatic finale was- to me- wholly unexpected- and wholly right. It is a powerful, a disturbing, a sordid book. Don't overlook it.

Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1956

ISBN: 0795301324

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION