Afternoon Men

3 Pages 653 Words

Afternoon Men
by Anthony Powell

Anthony Powells’ Afternoon Men interested me in many ways. It was very different from the rest of the novels I have read.
The novel begins with the two main characters, Atwater and Pringle, having a drink. William Atwater works at a museum and Pringle works as a painter. They are both very unhappy with their lives and drinking and partying is a way to temporarily cover their problems. Throughout this book they both describe what their lives are like and what they would like to change about it. Atwater is characterized as a womanizer and has a few meaningless "relationships" with various women. Pringle on the other hand is so disgusted with his life he is on the verge of suicide.
While reading this book, I have discovered that every character that has been introduced has their fair share of problems and is only concerned with themselves. They party, drink, and have sex all throughout the book and then complain about how they are not satisfied with the way their lives have turned out. But yet no one does anything to benefit themselves.
Atwater has a sexual relationship with Lola, who has feelings for him, but he just uses her for a good time. Lola wrote him a letter saying that she no longer wanted to see him. He replied "So that was all over. He was sorry in a way". He didn’t show much feeling toward that situation. The only reason that he may have been sorry is because he doesn’t have a woman to fool around with.
Atwater later meets a women named Susan Nunnery. He falls in love with Susan and wants to spend the rest of his life with her. She does not love him the way that he loves her. Susan states " What’s the good of our going out together"? Atwater replies " Well, I like it". She says "But I’m not in love with you. I tell you I hate being in love. I don’t want to be in love"(p.159). I think that this upset Atwater even though he re...