by Moe Zilla

Created on: January 24, 2009   Last Updated: February 18, 2012

"The Graduate" was a remarkable book that's been overshadowed by its 1967 movie adaptation. But four years earlier, in 1963, Charles Webb captured a perfect slice of alienation - an all-American youth-against-the-world story. The New York Times called it a "zany revolt against a solid gold future," adding that it was "brilliant," "sardonic," and "ludicrously funny."

Webb's book is supposedly based on a true story. Published when Webb was just 24 - himself a recent graduate from Williams College - it describes a young man's affair with a married older woman.

"Mrs. Robinson" became a legendary figure in the pop culture landscape - while Webb, for the rest of his life, appeared conflicted about the prospect of conventional success. (According to one biography, he "declined" an inheritance that was left to him by his father, while he and his wife have divested themselves of nearly all of their material possession.) But it's refreshing to hear that he's married. "The Graduate" follows his bewildered protagonist - Benjamin Braddock - who sees meaningless emptiness everywhere, as he drifts into an affair that's just as disconnected.

What makes the book wonderful is its sharp and ironic dialogue. Entire scenes are created using only dialogue, capturing both the action and the characters in all their pained isolation. In a hotel room, Benjamin tries to draw out Mrs. Robinson, asking about the events that led to her unhappy marriage.

"Well how did it happen. How did you get pregnant."

"How do you think."

"I mean did he take you up to his room with him? Did you go to a hotel?"

"Benjamin, what does it possibly matter."

"I'm curious."

There's real conflict as Benjamin examines the unhappiness around him and discovers details that are both ordinary and poignant. (Mrs. Robinson's answer? "We'd go to his car...") Webb savors that tension throughout the book, devoting large sections to rambling dialogue showing Ben's failure to connect

"I have some things on my mind right now."

"What things."

"Just some things."

"Well can't you tell me what they are?"

"No."

It's surprising how faithful the movie was to the book, recreating not only the book's tone but big chunks of its dialogue. And it has an identical ending.
("The doors of the bus closed just as they reached it...") But it's Benjamin's stark alienation that gives the book its impact. With empty relationships all around him - including even his family - Benjamin is trapped in a Pasadena
wasteland. (The book was even written at the bar by a hotel pool.) And it generates an endless flow of laughably pained dialogue.

"Mrs. Robinson. I think - I think you're the most attractive woman of all my parents' friends. I mean that. I find you desirable. But...."

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