Reviews

The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale

jbrito's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

justinmartyr's review against another edition

3.0

great book

avgastright's review against another edition

3.0

Seeing as this “minor classic” is less than 50 pages, it’s no great accomplishment that I read it in less than a day. With that said, I thought it was strangely good given the time period it was written in. It was patriotic (which is of course the whole point) without seeming cultish (as many “patriotic” things from before 1950 seem today), which was really sort of haunting. I felt like I could have talked to old Ed Hale about this in a normal conversation even though he wrote this in the mid 19th century. I also thought it was really cool how Hale tells the story - he writes about Philip Nolan (who is fictitious) from the perspective of himself, as if he really knew the guy and is writing in his memory. It’s a really interesting way of approaching a story that I’ve never seen before. The reason I can’t in good conscience give this five stars, however, is because even though I am pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this, it was simply too short to have much of an impact on me. I would happily have read a whole novel on the miseries of Philip Nolan, the man without a country, but we really only get a few small anecdotes. Cool read, though.