0 Reactions

George Mills (novel)George Mills is a 1982 novel by American author Stanley Elkin, published by E. P. Dutton. The novel, set in five parts, tells the family history of succeeding generations of characters named George Mills. The story covers more than 1,000 years from the First Crusade in Europe to the Ottoman Empire to present-day America. Elkin won the 1982 National Book Critics Circle Award in the fiction category for the novel. Elkin mentioned George Mills as one of his favorite novels. The novel is considered Elkin's "longest and most complexly organized work".: 189

Plot
The first George Mills sets out on a journey with his lord on the First Crusade. But he eventually gets lost in the Netherlands and reaches a salt mine in Poland. His lord at the mines is Guillalume, who teaches him some life lessons. Mills becomes aware of what is written in his fate and this helps him understand the walks of life in this world in a better manner. Despite having the knowledge of what would happen in the future, his timidity and powerlessness does not bring out any situation-changing effects.

The novel covers the history of succeeding family members named George Mills and all of them are aware of their fates and equally feeble and ineffective in changing their circumstances. The 43rd Mills encounters King George IV and is assigned on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople, where he first joins the Janissaries but later ends up in the Ottoman Sultan's harem doing household chores. He escapes from there and reaches America. The present-day Mills in America is a caretaker of an old woman named Judith Glazer in St. Louis, who is in the final stages of terminal cancer. Mills accompanies Glazer to Mexico and upon her death participates in her funeral together with her family.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

Load Full (0)