I generally don’t post links to reviews of Tarkington’s books because they’re almost all about The Magnificent Ambersons, and they tend to be two-paragraph blog entries with lots of misspellings.  But Linda Aragoni at Great Penformances offers up a rare and concise yet insightful read on this small Tark novel.  Here’s some of what she has to say:

Booth Tarkington makes Claire both a typical adolescent and a distinct person. Readers can — and will — laugh at Claire’s self-absorption. But they will realize long before she does that it’s not funny.

We have to take the Claires of the world seriously. An inability to see other people as people, “not just something . . . to use,” is the root of most human misery.