‘The Class’ – Eric Segal

While reading ‘The Class’, I did not feel that I was reading a novel. Instead, I felt that I had been propelled into a new world – the world of Harvard. I suddenly became one of the students there and later, passed out like them to join them in their journey, the journey of life.
‘The Class’ is just that, a journey. It tells the stories of 5 Harvard college boys who join Harvard with great dreams and ambitions. But life outside the walls of the college, they would eventually find, is totally different from what they dreamt of.
The heroes of the story are Andrew Eliot, Jason Gilbert, George Keller, Theodore Lambros and Daniel Rossi. Eliot is a complexed guy, weighed down by the excess baggage of his illustrious forefathers, the Eliots. Gilbert, the handsome guy, is always made to believe that he is different from the others, as he is a Jew. Keller, a refugee is a selfish guy, who just cannot accept love. Lambros, son of a restaurateur, wants to come out of his middle class status and dreams of teaching at Harvard in future. And Rossi, the genius pianist, is too confident about his prowess and just wants to go solo soon.
While reading, I moved with all of them in their quest for success, happiness and later, peace of mind. I was a part of their victories and failures. By the time the novel ended, I was numb with the sensation of having lived so many lives over the span of a week. The novel was not just entertainment; to me it was a revelation about life.
The author displays a very cynical view of matrimony, with none of the marriages being successes. Through the 25 years from 1958 to 1983, the class is made to compromise, swallow pride and break the very rules they themselves made. At the 25th reunion in 1983, the class meets again as mature people, together in happiness and sorrow as a real class for the first time in their lives.
‘The Class’, according to me, is fiction at it’s best – true to life. It will remain one of the best books I’ve ever read.