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The Best of Everything
Before Valley of the Dolls and Sex and the City--the iconic novel of ambitious career girls in New York City
When it was first published in 1958, Rona Jaffe's debut novel electrified readers who saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. There's Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor's office, naive country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Now a classic, and as page-turning as when it first came out, The Best of Everything portrays their lives and passions with intelligence, affection and prose as sharp as a paper cut.
(back cover)
When it was first published in 1958, Rona Jaffe's debut novel electrified readers who saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. There's Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor's office, naive country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Now a classic, and as page-turning as when it first came out, The Best of Everything portrays their lives and passions with intelligence, affection and prose as sharp as a paper cut.
(back cover)
448 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Rona Jaffe
24 books131 followersRona Jaffe established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program in 1995. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $850,000 to a total of 92 women.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 837 reviews
February 10, 2013
You start reading this book and you think: oh, how great it must’ve been to live in the 50s in New York. The glamour, the cocktail hour, the restaurants, the handsome men who drank scotch on the rocks. The glory days when the bosses sexually harassed their female employees because that’s what you did, the times when marriage was the only serious achievement any woman could or should aspire to, the times when every man felt he could patronise any woman… Ok, so maybe it wasn’t so great after all, unless of course you were a white man, ideally a well off one. Then the world was your oyster.
I couldn’t quite decide whether this was chick lit or not. It has been described as the ‘original Sex and the City’, ‘vintage chick lit’, etc. but is it really? It was written back when those labels didn’t exist yet; therefore the authors didn’t have to stick to any conventions as those conventions weren’t established. Every now and then the book would swerve into a typical romance territory and then suddenly surprise you with some excellent psychological insight. It should also be mentioned that it is shockingly (given it was published in 1958) sexually explicit.
As it is, I think it is best described as a sociological document of those times. It shows an array of problems and situations a woman could face back then and the solutions that were on offer at the time. ‘The Best of Everything’ tells a story of four young women who are trying to make a living in New York. There is a big difference in quality between those four plotlines. The stories of Gregg, April and Barbara are interesting enough but often they feel oversimplified and they are full of clichés and stereotypes. The story of Caroline, however, is in an entirely different league and it would probably be fair to assume that’s the most autobiographical of the characters. If all the supporting plotlines were cut out and we were only left with a maybe 200 page long Caroline story, the book would of course lose as a sociological document but would gain so much literarily. It could easily be mentioned in the same breath as Bell Jar.
I shouldn’t be too hard on the other girls, even when they came across as unbelievably naïve and emotionally simple. I had to remind myself that they were in their very early twenties and when I look back and read my diaries from when I was twenty one, I have to admit I was just as silly, dramatic and uncomplicated.
This book is a proof of the power of ‘Mad Men’. It was long out of print until one day Don Draper could be seen in one of the episodes reading it in his PJ’s. That alone was enough for Penguin to reissue it in their Modern Classics section. Being the nerd that I am, I actually read this book first. I looked at the blurb saying ‘as seen on Mad Men’ and wasn’t sure if I really want to try it. I was just recovering from watching eight seasons of House and was enjoying being TV-free. Eventually I succumbed. And ladies, let me tell you, Don Draper does put the sexy in sexism.
I couldn’t quite decide whether this was chick lit or not. It has been described as the ‘original Sex and the City’, ‘vintage chick lit’, etc. but is it really? It was written back when those labels didn’t exist yet; therefore the authors didn’t have to stick to any conventions as those conventions weren’t established. Every now and then the book would swerve into a typical romance territory and then suddenly surprise you with some excellent psychological insight. It should also be mentioned that it is shockingly (given it was published in 1958) sexually explicit.
As it is, I think it is best described as a sociological document of those times. It shows an array of problems and situations a woman could face back then and the solutions that were on offer at the time. ‘The Best of Everything’ tells a story of four young women who are trying to make a living in New York. There is a big difference in quality between those four plotlines. The stories of Gregg, April and Barbara are interesting enough but often they feel oversimplified and they are full of clichés and stereotypes. The story of Caroline, however, is in an entirely different league and it would probably be fair to assume that’s the most autobiographical of the characters. If all the supporting plotlines were cut out and we were only left with a maybe 200 page long Caroline story, the book would of course lose as a sociological document but would gain so much literarily. It could easily be mentioned in the same breath as Bell Jar.
I shouldn’t be too hard on the other girls, even when they came across as unbelievably naïve and emotionally simple. I had to remind myself that they were in their very early twenties and when I look back and read my diaries from when I was twenty one, I have to admit I was just as silly, dramatic and uncomplicated.
This book is a proof of the power of ‘Mad Men’. It was long out of print until one day Don Draper could be seen in one of the episodes reading it in his PJ’s. That alone was enough for Penguin to reissue it in their Modern Classics section. Being the nerd that I am, I actually read this book first. I looked at the blurb saying ‘as seen on Mad Men’ and wasn’t sure if I really want to try it. I was just recovering from watching eight seasons of House and was enjoying being TV-free. Eventually I succumbed. And ladies, let me tell you, Don Draper does put the sexy in sexism.
January 20, 2019
In the preface to the new edition of this 1958 bestseller, author Rona Jaffe tells us that The Best of Everything is now "a sociological document," and it is certainly that: a pre-feminist era look at career girls (typists, editors, and actresses) in New York. I found myself fascinated by just how much -- and how little -- has changed for women as they search for "success" (friendship, work, love, marriage) in the city. Her portrayal of the book publishing industry also struck a chord. Several of the girls are editors or typists for Fabian, a fictional mass-market paperback house, where they must face down ambitious Devil Wears Prada types, leering married executives, and drunk name-dropping editors...as well as the enduring horrors of an office Christmas party.
Overall, the book is a delight to read. Jaffe's prose exudes wit and enthusiasm: she was only 26 when she was commissioned to write this book, and it's funny/disturbing how her "voice of experience" sounds like today's single woman in her late 30s-early 40s (a la Carrie Bradshaw). 26 is the old 40. You can tell that Jaffe loves her characters and thinks of them as friends she once knew; while she toys with stereotypes (sometimes, unfortunately, in that after-school special/cautionary tale way), she usually rises above them.
Because of when this was published, I was impressed by the issues Jaffe wrote about, and how few of them felt tacked on. Unmarried women actually have sex and are not damned to hell! Some women never get married at all and have successful careers! "Good" people get abortions and divorces every day! Getting married does not ensure life-long happiness!
People have (and have always had) all kinds of relationships, and we often love each other in ways that we don't have words for. These characters explore quite a range of feelings: worship, mentorship, platonic friendship, stalkership, partnership, passion, ambivalence. Sadly, I found the book's ending -- or where nearly every character ends up -- rather annoying, overly dramatic, and/or silly. But I'm grateful to have spent a few wonderful subway rides getting to know Caroline, April, Gregg, Barbara, and Mary Agnes. I'm even more grateful that it's not 1958.
Overall, the book is a delight to read. Jaffe's prose exudes wit and enthusiasm: she was only 26 when she was commissioned to write this book, and it's funny/disturbing how her "voice of experience" sounds like today's single woman in her late 30s-early 40s (a la Carrie Bradshaw). 26 is the old 40. You can tell that Jaffe loves her characters and thinks of them as friends she once knew; while she toys with stereotypes (sometimes, unfortunately, in that after-school special/cautionary tale way), she usually rises above them.
Because of when this was published, I was impressed by the issues Jaffe wrote about, and how few of them felt tacked on. Unmarried women actually have sex and are not damned to hell! Some women never get married at all and have successful careers! "Good" people get abortions and divorces every day! Getting married does not ensure life-long happiness!
People have (and have always had) all kinds of relationships, and we often love each other in ways that we don't have words for. These characters explore quite a range of feelings: worship, mentorship, platonic friendship, stalkership, partnership, passion, ambivalence. Sadly, I found the book's ending -- or where nearly every character ends up -- rather annoying, overly dramatic, and/or silly. But I'm grateful to have spent a few wonderful subway rides getting to know Caroline, April, Gregg, Barbara, and Mary Agnes. I'm even more grateful that it's not 1958.
June 17, 2011
When The Best of Everything was published in 1958, the cover price was 50 cents, and if it still sold for that today it would be way overpriced. I can't remember the last time I hated a book this much. I bear so much hostility for this book that I am practically giddy.
This is the story of four women who work for Fabian Publishing in New York in the early '50s. Ostensibly, Caroline is the smart ambitious one who wants to be an editor, April is the naive country girl who comes to the big city and transforms herself into a sophisticated beauty, and Gregg is the aspiring actress who rooms with Caroline. In actuality, they are all pretty much the same person with one goal in mind and that is force a man who clearly has no use for them to marry them immediately so that they can stop working. Caroline pines for Eddie, to whom she was engaged until he sent her a letter from France telling her he married someone else. April is in love with Dexter, whose parents apparently named him in the mistaken belief that he was a cat, and continues to be in love with him even though he insisted that she get an abortion (but took the sting out of it by saying, "we can get married in the spring") and then broke up with her by asking her opinion on which girl he should take with him on vacation. Gregg is in love with Broadway producer David Wilder Savage, and she shows her love by sitting outside his apartment with her ear pressed up against the exterior wall listening to him have sex with other women and then going through his garbage when the maid puts it out in the hall.
It's all pretty boring and repetitive. The women are cretins and the men are creeps. Virtually every conversation that takes place is the women trying to convince the men to marry them, or the women talking to each other about what tactics they can use to convince the men to marry them. Occasionally, one of the girls goes out with someone who likes her back (albeit temporarily) and then they have such sparkling conversations as,
It was scintillating.
And despite going into this knowing that a pop novel of the late '50s might in some ways be offensive to contemporary sensibilities, this book was really beyond the pale. It's overtly homophobic, with numerous references to "fairies," "fa--ots," and "men who might as well be women," and vaguely anti-Semitic (Caroline and Gregg refer to a character whose surname is Landis as "Bermuda Schwartz"). I was feeling disappointed that it didn't seem to be racist as well, but then late in the book Caroline wonders if, when she goes to a famous actor's hotel room, the door will be answered by a "sinister Oriental houseboy," and she also can't remember whether she took her dirty clothes down to the "Chinaman" who runs the laundry. Oh, Rona Jaffe, I'm so sorry I doubted you!
To summarize: don't read this book.
This is the story of four women who work for Fabian Publishing in New York in the early '50s. Ostensibly, Caroline is the smart ambitious one who wants to be an editor, April is the naive country girl who comes to the big city and transforms herself into a sophisticated beauty, and Gregg is the aspiring actress who rooms with Caroline. In actuality, they are all pretty much the same person with one goal in mind and that is force a man who clearly has no use for them to marry them immediately so that they can stop working. Caroline pines for Eddie, to whom she was engaged until he sent her a letter from France telling her he married someone else. April is in love with Dexter, whose parents apparently named him in the mistaken belief that he was a cat, and continues to be in love with him even though he insisted that she get an abortion (but took the sting out of it by saying, "we can get married in the spring") and then broke up with her by asking her opinion on which girl he should take with him on vacation. Gregg is in love with Broadway producer David Wilder Savage, and she shows her love by sitting outside his apartment with her ear pressed up against the exterior wall listening to him have sex with other women and then going through his garbage when the maid puts it out in the hall.
It's all pretty boring and repetitive. The women are cretins and the men are creeps. Virtually every conversation that takes place is the women trying to convince the men to marry them, or the women talking to each other about what tactics they can use to convince the men to marry them. Occasionally, one of the girls goes out with someone who likes her back (albeit temporarily) and then they have such sparkling conversations as,
"Oh, I love you!"
"I love you too!"
"I love you so much!"
"I love you so much too!"
It was scintillating.
And despite going into this knowing that a pop novel of the late '50s might in some ways be offensive to contemporary sensibilities, this book was really beyond the pale. It's overtly homophobic, with numerous references to "fairies," "fa--ots," and "men who might as well be women," and vaguely anti-Semitic (Caroline and Gregg refer to a character whose surname is Landis as "Bermuda Schwartz"). I was feeling disappointed that it didn't seem to be racist as well, but then late in the book Caroline wonders if, when she goes to a famous actor's hotel room, the door will be answered by a "sinister Oriental houseboy," and she also can't remember whether she took her dirty clothes down to the "Chinaman" who runs the laundry. Oh, Rona Jaffe, I'm so sorry I doubted you!
To summarize: don't read this book.
May 18, 2019
Because I enjoyed so much of this “step back into the 1950s of my favorite city,” I’m keeping the four star rating which is slightly higher than the book actually deserves.
It’s the ending that I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around. Three main characters get neat endings (which doesn’t necessarily equate to happy but resolution is a must). But not our main character— her ending is about as unresolved as it gets.
It just doesn’t fit and leaves me wondering why? Despite this flaw, I really enjoyed the book with its shades of foreshadowing and Valley of the Dolls-like cautionary tales.
Now I’ve gotta go find the movie— if only to see Joan Crawford’s portrayal of Miss Farrow. Genius casting!!
It’s the ending that I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around. Three main characters get neat endings (which doesn’t necessarily equate to happy but resolution is a must). But not our main character— her ending is about as unresolved as it gets.
It just doesn’t fit and leaves me wondering why? Despite this flaw, I really enjoyed the book with its shades of foreshadowing and Valley of the Dolls-like cautionary tales.
Now I’ve gotta go find the movie— if only to see Joan Crawford’s portrayal of Miss Farrow. Genius casting!!
August 26, 2007
You know that feeling when you get a book and after the first few pages you realize it's going to be great? That's this book. I could not put it down and finished it in less than 24 hours.
I am shocked this was written in the 50's. I am also annoyed I did not read this book when I lived in NY. I woke up early on a sunday (around 6am) and finished it.
This is chick lit before there was chick lit. Better than Valley of the Dolls, better than Candace Bushnell (although I don't like her stuff that much) better than Plum Sykes. How much do you love the cover photo in black and white?
Greed, glamour, ambition and credit problems in the age before cell phones and the internet makes for a fascinating read. I love the insulting description of many girls "thin".
I don't want to give anything away, but the reviews in the beginning of the book were hysterical: glowing from NY papers, but a paper in Cleveland said it was recommended reading for any girl thinking of moving to NY... and for her parents!
It's supposed to be a cautionary tale of what happens to office girls in the city, but the author was surprised it made girls want to move to the city.
Apparently it's also a classic movie. Who knew? I will probably request it from Netflicks and not watch it and annoy Mike by holding up the queue.
I can't believe I'd never heard of this book. I heard about it from Jane magazine's list of 100 greatest books. Of course, after several years of being too vapid for even me to read, the magazine improved... and was canned. Oh well.
I am shocked this was written in the 50's. I am also annoyed I did not read this book when I lived in NY. I woke up early on a sunday (around 6am) and finished it.
This is chick lit before there was chick lit. Better than Valley of the Dolls, better than Candace Bushnell (although I don't like her stuff that much) better than Plum Sykes. How much do you love the cover photo in black and white?
Greed, glamour, ambition and credit problems in the age before cell phones and the internet makes for a fascinating read. I love the insulting description of many girls "thin".
I don't want to give anything away, but the reviews in the beginning of the book were hysterical: glowing from NY papers, but a paper in Cleveland said it was recommended reading for any girl thinking of moving to NY... and for her parents!
It's supposed to be a cautionary tale of what happens to office girls in the city, but the author was surprised it made girls want to move to the city.
Apparently it's also a classic movie. Who knew? I will probably request it from Netflicks and not watch it and annoy Mike by holding up the queue.
I can't believe I'd never heard of this book. I heard about it from Jane magazine's list of 100 greatest books. Of course, after several years of being too vapid for even me to read, the magazine improved... and was canned. Oh well.
December 6, 2021
I've recently read quite a few books about women in 1900s and I'm definitely not complaining. This was such an intriguing story and I enjoyed the story a lot but not enough to give it more than 4 stars
June 5, 2011
I’ve wanted to read this book ever since Don Draper was seen with a copy, and the influences on Mad Men are plain; many of the characters in this book - about a group of girls coming to New York in 1952, in search of new lives but ultimately, in search of marriageable men - are instantly recognisable to a Mad Men aficionado.
It’s an old book, the author - a young girl when it was written - is now dead, consequently, it's somewhat dated, but it’s age shows in the content, the attitudes and mores, rather than the style, which is still fresh and very readable. The frank description of sex and its consequences (there is more than one abortion) must have been, at the very least, unusual for it’s time. It’s historical chick lit of the very best kind, mid-20th century Jane Austen; it tells us what life was like for those women living those lives, the choices they had, right from the horse’s mouth (Rona Jaffe was herself one of the women she describes, in her mid twenties and working as assistant-editor for a New York publishing company when this book was written).
The Best of Everything was clearly intended to be sensational but Jaffe is such an excellent writer, the novel is too good, too elementally true to be trashy; real women living real lives are described the frankest detail and I can see that it would have been shocking in its day.
It’s not as if a great deal has fundamentally changed – the expectation and assumptions around marriage (which often seem more like something from the mid 18th century than the mid 20th), and sexual squeamishness aside, most chapters of The Best of Everything would make an episode of Sex in the City – though I think few modern women would agonise about being ‘left on the shelf’ at the tender ages of Jaffe’s characters, who average just 21 yeas old when the book opens.
This is definitely a woman’s book; men do not come across at all well in Rona Jaffe’s world. Not all are as coldly heartless as Dexter Key, but every single one is entirely self-centred; even the best of them feel the world – especially the female world - revolves around them, their wants and desires. But sadly, I feel little has changed in that regard, what it is acceptable to do and say, out loud, in the workplace has definitely changed, but the most cursory glance at any male-dominated message board tells you nothing about mainstream male attitudes has changed much in half a century.
The Best of Everything is brilliant, descriptive, eminently readable, bluntly truthful – times have changed, but it’s still a book full of characters and situations any working woman today will instantly recognise - and be grateful they don’t live in the 1950’s.
It’s an old book, the author - a young girl when it was written - is now dead, consequently, it's somewhat dated, but it’s age shows in the content, the attitudes and mores, rather than the style, which is still fresh and very readable. The frank description of sex and its consequences (there is more than one abortion) must have been, at the very least, unusual for it’s time. It’s historical chick lit of the very best kind, mid-20th century Jane Austen; it tells us what life was like for those women living those lives, the choices they had, right from the horse’s mouth (Rona Jaffe was herself one of the women she describes, in her mid twenties and working as assistant-editor for a New York publishing company when this book was written).
The Best of Everything was clearly intended to be sensational but Jaffe is such an excellent writer, the novel is too good, too elementally true to be trashy; real women living real lives are described the frankest detail and I can see that it would have been shocking in its day.
It’s not as if a great deal has fundamentally changed – the expectation and assumptions around marriage (which often seem more like something from the mid 18th century than the mid 20th), and sexual squeamishness aside, most chapters of The Best of Everything would make an episode of Sex in the City – though I think few modern women would agonise about being ‘left on the shelf’ at the tender ages of Jaffe’s characters, who average just 21 yeas old when the book opens.
This is definitely a woman’s book; men do not come across at all well in Rona Jaffe’s world. Not all are as coldly heartless as Dexter Key, but every single one is entirely self-centred; even the best of them feel the world – especially the female world - revolves around them, their wants and desires. But sadly, I feel little has changed in that regard, what it is acceptable to do and say, out loud, in the workplace has definitely changed, but the most cursory glance at any male-dominated message board tells you nothing about mainstream male attitudes has changed much in half a century.
The Best of Everything is brilliant, descriptive, eminently readable, bluntly truthful – times have changed, but it’s still a book full of characters and situations any working woman today will instantly recognise - and be grateful they don’t live in the 1950’s.
July 27, 2012
One of the most honest and enthralling books I've read in a long time. I can't get over the fact that this was published in 1958. Either that's a mistake and it was published this year, or some things really don't change. There are lines in this book that I read over and over again because they resonated so strongly with emotions that I've felt in the past or I'm currently feeling.
Filled with laugh out loud moments, shocking moments, moments that make you hate these girls (because they make the same mistakes you do), and oh so many moments that bring up bittersweet memories of past loves, there are very few books that can invoke such a strong emotional reaction like this one. I recommend it to anyone feeling like they've made a mistake in the past that can never be fixed, anyone with ambition, anyone living in (or has ever lived in) New York City, and all the single girls kicking butt and making it on their own. I will definitely be re-reading this one!
Filled with laugh out loud moments, shocking moments, moments that make you hate these girls (because they make the same mistakes you do), and oh so many moments that bring up bittersweet memories of past loves, there are very few books that can invoke such a strong emotional reaction like this one. I recommend it to anyone feeling like they've made a mistake in the past that can never be fixed, anyone with ambition, anyone living in (or has ever lived in) New York City, and all the single girls kicking butt and making it on their own. I will definitely be re-reading this one!
May 2, 2024
Less trashy than 'Valley of the Dolls'! Less sexy than 'Sex and the City'! Much, much less Marilyn Monroe than (in fact, zero compared to) 'How to Marry a Millionaire'!
~ but nevertheless it's that tried-and-true recipe of the female triumvirate bewilderingly ensconced in The Battle of the Sexes - though, in 'TBOE', the more accurate number is five. ~ that's still several ladies less than Mary McCarthy's 'The Group' - a much better book, covering similar ground. . .
At almost 450 pages, I figured there would be more to this 1958 blockbuster than its skeletal 1959 film version (the one that features Joan Crawford for a mere seven minutes, yet has JC front and center on the DVD case).
And, yes, there is more to the story, though not much more to the plot. The movie captures the bullet points; the somewhat-overwritten novel has its share of filler.
I'd long known that Jaffe's careening-career-girls debut had touched such a nerve on its release that it was soon seen as something of a touchstone in Women's Lib studies. But, though compulsively readable in a box-of-chocolates kind of way, it remains facile in its treatment of women in the post-WWII workplace. We don't learn much re: women as workers resisting demotion.
It could have been instructive, for example, to look through protagonist Caroline Bender's eyes as she went through the daily routine of being a book editor (i.e., hands-on dealings with authors or brainstorm sessions about marketing to men as opposed to women) - or even to witness more of how men pitted against female 'fellow workers' might set out to undermine their intelligence and abilities (no doubt a common occurrence in '50s offices).
But the focus here is on everybody's love life (with its collective rainbow of soup-to-nuts possibilities).
While that tips the soap opera scale, there's still considerable sociological value in the exploration of types. We see how little most potential couples (in this particular stratum of the period) knew about negotiating male-female dynamics. Looks and status generally carry the day. The men are depicted for the most part as being emotionally clueless about what women want and need while the women generally aspire to latching onto good-looking, kind and financially solvent protectors, as compensation for society's omnipresent pressure to get married (translation: be respectable and seen as a 'fully formed person').
Jaffe intended her book to be a game-changer that would turn the tide of gender perceptions, and to an extent she succeeds. But not only is there also a residue of tentativeness (condoms are used without saying the word; masturbation is talked about without saying the word; sex is described like a first glance at a 'how to' manual) but the worldview is 100% straight and Caucasian. You'll find mild racism and homophobia in these pages (whether coming from the author or simply her observation of the territory).
Don't be surprised if it turns out you have a 'favorite couple'. Mine is Barbara (the young, jilted mother) and Sidney (maddeningly indecisive but lucky in divorce).
Like 'Valley of the Dolls', this literature-free book is (all things considered) better than its film counterpart. The film of 'The Best of Everything' is too stuffy to be as thrillingly, unintentionally hilarious as the film of 'VOTD'. Still, Jaffe's book does have a whirlwind of a puree-finish that more than flirts with the ridiculous, even as it simultaneously reads like the only 'logical' conclusion.
~ but nevertheless it's that tried-and-true recipe of the female triumvirate bewilderingly ensconced in The Battle of the Sexes - though, in 'TBOE', the more accurate number is five. ~ that's still several ladies less than Mary McCarthy's 'The Group' - a much better book, covering similar ground. . .
At almost 450 pages, I figured there would be more to this 1958 blockbuster than its skeletal 1959 film version (the one that features Joan Crawford for a mere seven minutes, yet has JC front and center on the DVD case).
And, yes, there is more to the story, though not much more to the plot. The movie captures the bullet points; the somewhat-overwritten novel has its share of filler.
I'd long known that Jaffe's careening-career-girls debut had touched such a nerve on its release that it was soon seen as something of a touchstone in Women's Lib studies. But, though compulsively readable in a box-of-chocolates kind of way, it remains facile in its treatment of women in the post-WWII workplace. We don't learn much re: women as workers resisting demotion.
It could have been instructive, for example, to look through protagonist Caroline Bender's eyes as she went through the daily routine of being a book editor (i.e., hands-on dealings with authors or brainstorm sessions about marketing to men as opposed to women) - or even to witness more of how men pitted against female 'fellow workers' might set out to undermine their intelligence and abilities (no doubt a common occurrence in '50s offices).
But the focus here is on everybody's love life (with its collective rainbow of soup-to-nuts possibilities).
While that tips the soap opera scale, there's still considerable sociological value in the exploration of types. We see how little most potential couples (in this particular stratum of the period) knew about negotiating male-female dynamics. Looks and status generally carry the day. The men are depicted for the most part as being emotionally clueless about what women want and need while the women generally aspire to latching onto good-looking, kind and financially solvent protectors, as compensation for society's omnipresent pressure to get married (translation: be respectable and seen as a 'fully formed person').
Jaffe intended her book to be a game-changer that would turn the tide of gender perceptions, and to an extent she succeeds. But not only is there also a residue of tentativeness (condoms are used without saying the word; masturbation is talked about without saying the word; sex is described like a first glance at a 'how to' manual) but the worldview is 100% straight and Caucasian. You'll find mild racism and homophobia in these pages (whether coming from the author or simply her observation of the territory).
Don't be surprised if it turns out you have a 'favorite couple'. Mine is Barbara (the young, jilted mother) and Sidney (maddeningly indecisive but lucky in divorce).
Like 'Valley of the Dolls', this literature-free book is (all things considered) better than its film counterpart. The film of 'The Best of Everything' is too stuffy to be as thrillingly, unintentionally hilarious as the film of 'VOTD'. Still, Jaffe's book does have a whirlwind of a puree-finish that more than flirts with the ridiculous, even as it simultaneously reads like the only 'logical' conclusion.
July 12, 2015
I enjoyed this book, which toes the line between worthwhile and trashy as it follows the lives of four young women who meet while working at a New York publishing house in 1952. But while it initially looks like a workplace drama, and the depiction of the workplace and the publishing business is fascinating, the book is soon swallowed by the characters’ relationship drama. It is soapy at times, and some readers will enjoy it on that level, following the romantic misadventures of young women desperate to marry. But then it can also be quite insightful about people, and critiques the idea that marriage should be a woman’s entire purpose in life. Except in the case of one dully conventional character, the more the young women here make their lives revolve around men, the harder they fall.
There is some variation in quality among the storylines. The book’s central character, Caroline Bender, has the most complex and nuanced plot, and is the character every reader will want to identify with – she’s smart, ambitious, self-aware, and a caring friend. The naïve, romantic April and needy aspiring actress Gregg are simpler foils for Caroline and display little common sense throughout the book (though that is perhaps not uncommon for their age – late teens and early twenties). It is difficult to say much about the fourth character, Barbara; though potentially interesting, we see little of her and she seems to be included primarily to represent the difficulties faced by a single mother looking for love.
The endings to these storylines are rather pat and sometimes melodramatic, except for Caroline’s, which is mostly confusing, though it can be interpreted as empowering. But there is a lot of good stuff along the way: a window into a setting that feels very authentic (as it should, since the author evidently wrote from her own experience), with enough detail to bring the time and place to life but without slowing down the story; immersive storylines with believable characters and a lot of good dialogue. It is always fun in older books – those that give a complete enough view of the characters’ lives to allow for it – to see how much has changed and how much hasn’t. I had a lot of fun reading this book, but am glad to live in a culture that has moved on from this all-encompassing obsession with marriage.
There is some variation in quality among the storylines. The book’s central character, Caroline Bender, has the most complex and nuanced plot, and is the character every reader will want to identify with – she’s smart, ambitious, self-aware, and a caring friend. The naïve, romantic April and needy aspiring actress Gregg are simpler foils for Caroline and display little common sense throughout the book (though that is perhaps not uncommon for their age – late teens and early twenties). It is difficult to say much about the fourth character, Barbara; though potentially interesting, we see little of her and she seems to be included primarily to represent the difficulties faced by a single mother looking for love.
The endings to these storylines are rather pat and sometimes melodramatic, except for Caroline’s, which is mostly confusing, though it can be interpreted as empowering. But there is a lot of good stuff along the way: a window into a setting that feels very authentic (as it should, since the author evidently wrote from her own experience), with enough detail to bring the time and place to life but without slowing down the story; immersive storylines with believable characters and a lot of good dialogue. It is always fun in older books – those that give a complete enough view of the characters’ lives to allow for it – to see how much has changed and how much hasn’t. I had a lot of fun reading this book, but am glad to live in a culture that has moved on from this all-encompassing obsession with marriage.
Read
August 16, 2016As a woman in publishing in New York City, I got a weird thrill out of reading this novel about the lives of three women in publishing in New York City...circa 1955. This book is a time-capsule - a look at professional women in a very different time, when the assumed goal of every young woman's life was marriage. The writing is also fascinating as a relic of an earlier era, but even by contemporary standards it's incredibly, compulsively readable. I loved it, but I'm not proud of myself for loving it.
Read
June 13, 2017It took me a while to read this because the details of the various charcters' lives, while interesting individually, became too much as a group. What I appreciated most was the journalistic type commentary on what it was like to be a working woman in a big city in the 1950's at a time when it was becoming possible, if still difficult, for a young women to design the way she might live her life. A brave book for its time, I think.
September 21, 2018
If
Valley of the Dolls
(1966) is the glamorous and excessive cousin of
Peyton Place
(1956), The Best of Everything is the Seconal-sedated twin of Valley of the Dolls. The Jekyll of the Hyde. Booze is flowing, but in a sophisticated Mad Men fashion. In case your blind date is a twat, just order loads of drinks in succession.
Chick lit is still a problematic genre for me, but instead of having another Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) experience, The Best of Everything was pretty entertaining. I liked the smuttiness of Valley of the Dolls more, but The Best of Everything had a relaxing smoothness to it. It's the time period and everything that comes with it, like the experiences of working women in a world of men, that instantly makes the story more interesting and the plight of the characters more engaging.
The characters, unfortunately, are less interesting. There's a lot of naiveté going around, and the moment when you realize that one of the women is clinging to her former man like she was drowning, you also notice you don't care about the women at all. Like in Valley of the Dolls, they define themselves through men, but because of the more everyday and conventional tone of the novel it gets tiring after a while.
The stories are prolonged for way too long and the underlying message against single life is the cherry on a moldy sundae. Honestly, the plot twist at the end is just terrible, because it doesn't fit the rest of the book at all. It's like Jaffe was trying to stick something scandalous in there to hammer her point home, but it destroys all credibility and ends up in the daytime soap territory.
Jaffe was clearly trying to concoct a moral tale about the dangers of a big city, but I'm not surprised that many girls were instead inspired to move there. Life in New York City might be difficult, even dangerous, and subject you to sexual harassment at the office, but it's also an adventure (at least that's what I imagine the girls were thinking). The lack of personality in the married zombies and in those who aspired to become zombies was so horrifying, though, that it's difficult to imagine Jaffe thought things through regarding character development and her audience (would the 1950s readers have been tempted to aim towards marriage and nothing else because of Jaffe's characters?).
Still, The Best of Everything is a quick and light read. It doesn't even remotely try to melt your brain, and better yet, instead of relying on a simple happy ending, the ending is kind of ambiguous and makes it seem like some of the characters have an uncertain future. The world of a working girl was tough in the 50s, and the lack of sugar coating might appeal to modern audiences, too. It's not like sexism or sexual harassment have disappeared from the working places, but Jaffe's novel definitely makes you appreciate the improvement of working conditions.
Chick lit is still a problematic genre for me, but instead of having another Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) experience, The Best of Everything was pretty entertaining. I liked the smuttiness of Valley of the Dolls more, but The Best of Everything had a relaxing smoothness to it. It's the time period and everything that comes with it, like the experiences of working women in a world of men, that instantly makes the story more interesting and the plight of the characters more engaging.
The characters, unfortunately, are less interesting. There's a lot of naiveté going around, and the moment when you realize that one of the women is clinging to her former man like she was drowning, you also notice you don't care about the women at all. Like in Valley of the Dolls, they define themselves through men, but because of the more everyday and conventional tone of the novel it gets tiring after a while.
The stories are prolonged for way too long and the underlying message against single life is the cherry on a moldy sundae. Honestly, the plot twist at the end is just terrible, because it doesn't fit the rest of the book at all. It's like Jaffe was trying to stick something scandalous in there to hammer her point home, but it destroys all credibility and ends up in the daytime soap territory.
Jaffe was clearly trying to concoct a moral tale about the dangers of a big city, but I'm not surprised that many girls were instead inspired to move there. Life in New York City might be difficult, even dangerous, and subject you to sexual harassment at the office, but it's also an adventure (at least that's what I imagine the girls were thinking). The lack of personality in the married zombies and in those who aspired to become zombies was so horrifying, though, that it's difficult to imagine Jaffe thought things through regarding character development and her audience (would the 1950s readers have been tempted to aim towards marriage and nothing else because of Jaffe's characters?).
Still, The Best of Everything is a quick and light read. It doesn't even remotely try to melt your brain, and better yet, instead of relying on a simple happy ending, the ending is kind of ambiguous and makes it seem like some of the characters have an uncertain future. The world of a working girl was tough in the 50s, and the lack of sugar coating might appeal to modern audiences, too. It's not like sexism or sexual harassment have disappeared from the working places, but Jaffe's novel definitely makes you appreciate the improvement of working conditions.
June 20, 2011
(My review written for Amazon UK)
“The Best of Everything” starts well and is, at first, a very engaging read. The first few chapters introduce us to the character of Caroline Bender and her first weeks as a typist at Fabian publishing. Gradually, the other three main female characters appear, as well as a host of other ‘extras’: colleagues, friends, terrible dates, boyfriends and families. However, of the four main female characters, it really is Caroline who gets the most ‘screen time’. The other three - April, the clueless girl; Barbara, the divorcee mother, Gregg, the actress - still feel marginal, and in the case of Gregg, rather poorly sketched.
By the time I was halfway through this novel, however, the endless musings on marriage began to really grate on me, and so did the fact that our heroines kept making the same mistakes over and over again (surely even in the 50s women could tell a ‘good’ man from a ‘player’?). I was of course well aware that the book was written in the 1950s and therefore is ‘of its time’; but Jayne Eyre does not feel dated; the novels of F.S. Fitzgerald do not feel dated; therefore it must be the ‘chick-lit’ element which does not age well. Yes, there are some aspects of the novel which would have certainly seemed scandalous back in the 50s - ‘consuming’ a relationship before marriage; abortion; inappropriate behaviour by male superiors in the workplace. But the underlying message of the book is, however, that all will be well if you eventually find a man and get married.
Having said that, if one goes by Rona Jaffe’s account, a good man will be very hard to find indeed; the male characters in this book range from pathetic molluscs to downright villains, with nothing in between. If I had been a young, inexperienced woman reading this in the 1950s, I think I would have joined a nunnery in sheer terror of the alternative. Modern chick-lit at least gives men a break, and generally makes an attempt to understand their reasons when they behave badly.
Sadly, by the last third of this book, I really had enough and found myself skim-reading - like the endless description of someone’s wedding - and wondering how a novel of over 400 pages had not been trimmed of all the unnecessary padding; the only justification I can think of is that in the 1950s maybe chopping out was not the done thing in publishing.
Going by the many readers’ reviews that I have seen here on Amazon and on other sites, ‘The Best of Everything’ is a ‘love or hate’ novel, so I am reluctant to tell potential readers to stay well away from it. It is pleasant enough in parts and the 1950s backdrop is a very nice place to lose yourself for a few hours. But if you scream in frustration halfway through, remember that you were warned here, first.
“The Best of Everything” starts well and is, at first, a very engaging read. The first few chapters introduce us to the character of Caroline Bender and her first weeks as a typist at Fabian publishing. Gradually, the other three main female characters appear, as well as a host of other ‘extras’: colleagues, friends, terrible dates, boyfriends and families. However, of the four main female characters, it really is Caroline who gets the most ‘screen time’. The other three - April, the clueless girl; Barbara, the divorcee mother, Gregg, the actress - still feel marginal, and in the case of Gregg, rather poorly sketched.
By the time I was halfway through this novel, however, the endless musings on marriage began to really grate on me, and so did the fact that our heroines kept making the same mistakes over and over again (surely even in the 50s women could tell a ‘good’ man from a ‘player’?). I was of course well aware that the book was written in the 1950s and therefore is ‘of its time’; but Jayne Eyre does not feel dated; the novels of F.S. Fitzgerald do not feel dated; therefore it must be the ‘chick-lit’ element which does not age well. Yes, there are some aspects of the novel which would have certainly seemed scandalous back in the 50s - ‘consuming’ a relationship before marriage; abortion; inappropriate behaviour by male superiors in the workplace. But the underlying message of the book is, however, that all will be well if you eventually find a man and get married.
Having said that, if one goes by Rona Jaffe’s account, a good man will be very hard to find indeed; the male characters in this book range from pathetic molluscs to downright villains, with nothing in between. If I had been a young, inexperienced woman reading this in the 1950s, I think I would have joined a nunnery in sheer terror of the alternative. Modern chick-lit at least gives men a break, and generally makes an attempt to understand their reasons when they behave badly.
Sadly, by the last third of this book, I really had enough and found myself skim-reading - like the endless description of someone’s wedding - and wondering how a novel of over 400 pages had not been trimmed of all the unnecessary padding; the only justification I can think of is that in the 1950s maybe chopping out was not the done thing in publishing.
Going by the many readers’ reviews that I have seen here on Amazon and on other sites, ‘The Best of Everything’ is a ‘love or hate’ novel, so I am reluctant to tell potential readers to stay well away from it. It is pleasant enough in parts and the 1950s backdrop is a very nice place to lose yourself for a few hours. But if you scream in frustration halfway through, remember that you were warned here, first.
November 6, 2011
Try to resist a book that opens with a breathy evocation of Monday morning, 9 o'clock, when thousands of girls emerge from Grand Central Station and subway exits, some in kidskin gloves and pomaded locks, some in torn dirty white gloves and a kerchief hiding their pincurls, all walking towards the skyscrapers where they fill steno pools.
The tension in this scene, ostensibly, lies between professional ambition and marital aspiration: "The Best of Everything" was published in 1958, and Jaffe's unmarried college-grad girls feel haunted by failing to marry their college sweethearts. Yet the five or six main characters diverge in their reactions to work: some have the self-assertion to demand promotion to editor, others aspire to queen-bee status in the typing pool. Off-duty there is heavy petting for all and rollicking bedroom scenes for many.
On "Mad Men," Don Draper chose this as a bedtime read. If only Betty did, too; this is one cautionary tale that's actually a song of praise for sexual and romantic experimentation, and generally taking a bite out of life without guilt. And to think that this was written by the decree of a publishing house in 1958, while "Sex and the City" and chick-lit novels obligatorily end in extravagant proposals and the miraculous wedding gowns that make it all worth it.
The tension in this scene, ostensibly, lies between professional ambition and marital aspiration: "The Best of Everything" was published in 1958, and Jaffe's unmarried college-grad girls feel haunted by failing to marry their college sweethearts. Yet the five or six main characters diverge in their reactions to work: some have the self-assertion to demand promotion to editor, others aspire to queen-bee status in the typing pool. Off-duty there is heavy petting for all and rollicking bedroom scenes for many.
On "Mad Men," Don Draper chose this as a bedtime read. If only Betty did, too; this is one cautionary tale that's actually a song of praise for sexual and romantic experimentation, and generally taking a bite out of life without guilt. And to think that this was written by the decree of a publishing house in 1958, while "Sex and the City" and chick-lit novels obligatorily end in extravagant proposals and the miraculous wedding gowns that make it all worth it.
May 26, 2022
Seriöst bra chicklit, skriven på 50-talet, om några unga kvinnor vars vägar korsas på ett förlag i 50-talets New York.
April 4, 2021
My agent recommended this book, first published in 1958, about four young women working for a publishing company in New York and searching for love. I fell into its pages like you fall into a warm, comfy bed propped up by soft pillows, and found it impossible to put down. It tells the women’s stories in separate chapters, from their points of view, with overlapping scenes taking places in shared flats, at parties, and on endless evenings spent quaffing cocktails.
Caroline Bender starts work as a typist and yearns to be promoted to editor, but an older woman stands in her way, while her male boss likes groping women’s legs under the table. April is especially clueless when she arrives on the job and makes some disastrous dating mistakes as she chases without pride after a no-good man. Barbara is a divorced single mother, trying to have a career and hoping to love again yet wary of it at the same time. And Gregg is an actress scraping around for work. Between them they date some terrible men, until you feel like yelling at the book: “Don’t believe him!” “Walk away!” “Keep your dignity!”
It’s glamorous and engaging, full of steamy New York atmosphere, and although written in a pre-feminist Mad-Men era, I didn’t find it dated. If you want a moreish read that has you glued to your seat, give it a go.
Caroline Bender starts work as a typist and yearns to be promoted to editor, but an older woman stands in her way, while her male boss likes groping women’s legs under the table. April is especially clueless when she arrives on the job and makes some disastrous dating mistakes as she chases without pride after a no-good man. Barbara is a divorced single mother, trying to have a career and hoping to love again yet wary of it at the same time. And Gregg is an actress scraping around for work. Between them they date some terrible men, until you feel like yelling at the book: “Don’t believe him!” “Walk away!” “Keep your dignity!”
It’s glamorous and engaging, full of steamy New York atmosphere, and although written in a pre-feminist Mad-Men era, I didn’t find it dated. If you want a moreish read that has you glued to your seat, give it a go.
February 24, 2009
This book was written in 1958, so it is extremely dated. But I like Rona Jaffe, so I thought I'd give it a try. The story is of a group of young women who come to New York because they want exciting lives. They meet at a publishing house, and it talks about what turn their lives take. What I found interesting was the portrayal of blatant sexual harassment on the job. I remember the 1980s and it was bad, but not like this. In the 1950s, men thought any woman in the office was fair game, and she had no recourse. Reading this book will make you want to hug any woman over 60 who paved the way for better working conditions for the rest of us. What I found tedious about the book was how important men were in the lives of these woman. Without exception, whether the it was a girl from the typing pool or the only female editor in the publishing company, they were all willing to give up everything for a man. And many of the women had no other ambition than to get married. It was probably a result of times, but it made otherwise likeable characters pathetic. I cared enough about the characters Jaffe created to be interested up to the end, but I found the book's conclusion unsatisfying.
November 3, 2013
Jaffe's debut has been underrated. Why has this not been on reading list from writers since the 50's?
It's subversive yet a little soapy, which is why I know it's been relegated to toe the line between the dark corners of literary fiction and the pulpy titles the girls help publish in the novel.
There is more owed to this book and what it foretold about women and feminism without being preachy about it. The overall tone of the book is timeless and was very modern for the time; and at the same time it's shocking if not sad or downright depressing that so many aspects of what these characters go through aren't relics of a bygone era.
It's subversive yet a little soapy, which is why I know it's been relegated to toe the line between the dark corners of literary fiction and the pulpy titles the girls help publish in the novel.
There is more owed to this book and what it foretold about women and feminism without being preachy about it. The overall tone of the book is timeless and was very modern for the time; and at the same time it's shocking if not sad or downright depressing that so many aspects of what these characters go through aren't relics of a bygone era.
August 27, 2013
THE BEST OF EVERYTHING
By Rona Jaffe
This is most definitely one of the golden oldies!!! Written in 1958 it was part of the vanguard that changed contemporary fiction. So many young women saw themselves reflected in the novel.
The story of five young girls trying to make their careers in a large New York firm rang true to so many of the lives of women in the 50's. It is a brilliant depiction of the personal and professional struggles that women found in the city and corporate world.
By Rona Jaffe
This is most definitely one of the golden oldies!!! Written in 1958 it was part of the vanguard that changed contemporary fiction. So many young women saw themselves reflected in the novel.
The story of five young girls trying to make their careers in a large New York firm rang true to so many of the lives of women in the 50's. It is a brilliant depiction of the personal and professional struggles that women found in the city and corporate world.
December 12, 2023
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe is uncomfortable on so many levels.
To begin with, it’s uncomfortable because it’s not the kind of book typically picked up by someone in my demographic: old guy. This novel is about five young women setting out on careers and relationships in New York City in 1952. It was chosen for a book discussion by one of my Goodreads groups. It was a good choice, and, of course, it’s not a bad thing to get outside your norms—especially if it makes you a little uneasy.
It’s uncomfortable because of its depiction of the supporting male characters. They range from the lecherous drunk at the office party to the jerk who’s in the relationship just for the sex to the empathetic fella who’s sensitive, caring and knows just what to say every time. It’s uncomfortable because I think I’ve met all these guys.
It’s uncomfortable because the women in the novel expect the men in the office and elsewhere to hit on them constantly, and be generally demanding and condescending. And they simply accept it. That’s uncomfortable because that’s the way it really was, and to a lesser degree, still is, I suppose.
Any book that evokes a reaction like this is a good one. But the shine begins to tarnish just over halfway when the text gets repetitious and tedious. How many different ways can a character express an undying love for the guy who left her for someone else just before the wedding? Or for the married guy who can’t leave his wife? And on and on.
It’s like the literary version of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” When will it end?
When it does finally end, the resolutions are tight and satisfying with a mixture of sadness and humor.
The Best of Everything won’t be the best book you’ll ever read. But I wish I had read it when I got started in the 1980s. And if you are of a certain age, it may be a walk down memory lane—albeit a somewhat uncomfortable one.
To begin with, it’s uncomfortable because it’s not the kind of book typically picked up by someone in my demographic: old guy. This novel is about five young women setting out on careers and relationships in New York City in 1952. It was chosen for a book discussion by one of my Goodreads groups. It was a good choice, and, of course, it’s not a bad thing to get outside your norms—especially if it makes you a little uneasy.
It’s uncomfortable because of its depiction of the supporting male characters. They range from the lecherous drunk at the office party to the jerk who’s in the relationship just for the sex to the empathetic fella who’s sensitive, caring and knows just what to say every time. It’s uncomfortable because I think I’ve met all these guys.
It’s uncomfortable because the women in the novel expect the men in the office and elsewhere to hit on them constantly, and be generally demanding and condescending. And they simply accept it. That’s uncomfortable because that’s the way it really was, and to a lesser degree, still is, I suppose.
Any book that evokes a reaction like this is a good one. But the shine begins to tarnish just over halfway when the text gets repetitious and tedious. How many different ways can a character express an undying love for the guy who left her for someone else just before the wedding? Or for the married guy who can’t leave his wife? And on and on.
It’s like the literary version of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” When will it end?
When it does finally end, the resolutions are tight and satisfying with a mixture of sadness and humor.
The Best of Everything won’t be the best book you’ll ever read. But I wish I had read it when I got started in the 1980s. And if you are of a certain age, it may be a walk down memory lane—albeit a somewhat uncomfortable one.
January 11, 2019
The book is 60 years old, and yet I have the impression that while a lot has changed in the world of working women, many things remain the same.
This is a well-written novel, with very likeable characters. Good prose, some great scenes and very good, natural-sounding dialogue.
It has a very contemporary feel.
This is a well-written novel, with very likeable characters. Good prose, some great scenes and very good, natural-sounding dialogue.
It has a very contemporary feel.
April 4, 2019
My mother loved this book and I just found her copy so I picked it up and decided I would read it. First of all I haven’t had a paperback book in years.
I got a kick out of the 60s frame of the world.
I enjoyed the schmaltzy, drama, anxiety, early girl power thing.
The men were there but the core was all female!
Good gosh, lots of fun way over the top Drama.
It was a pleasure.
I got a kick out of the 60s frame of the world.
I enjoyed the schmaltzy, drama, anxiety, early girl power thing.
The men were there but the core was all female!
Good gosh, lots of fun way over the top Drama.
It was a pleasure.
July 7, 2023
At the beginning of the novel, it's 1952 and Caroline Bender is starting her first job in the typing pool at a New York publishing company. This isn't what she intended at all. She went to a good college and did what she was supposed to do--snagged a man, a good catch, and got engaged--all set for her MRS degree. But then he married someone else and she is a failure because he dumped her and she isn't starting the life she's supposed to have and she's trying to figure out what to do and to be instead. She's 20.
She and the other women in the book, none of them older than their early 20s, have absorbed the lessons that their goal in life is to marry a suitable man and then their life can begin properly. Their only source of identity is as a chosen companion to that man. He will determine who she is, where she lives, what she's worth, what she needs. They only really exist in their reflection in men's eyes. They know perfectly well that most of these men are shits, but they never question the basic assumptions of their world. If they don't succeed on the terms of that world, they assume that the failure is their own--they have failed as women. They were too frigid or too easy, too accommodating or not accommodating enough, too needy or too independent, too sexy or not sexy enough, too pliant or too opinionated, too sophisticated or not sophisticated enough. If they sleep with a man, they were too easy and if they get pregnant they were clearly trying to trap a nice man into marriage. If they refuse to sleep with a man, they are cold and don't understand a man's needs. If they flirt, they are fickle and silly and contemptible, but if they don't flirt, they are insufficiently feminine and need to be brought down a peg or two. If they are clearly focussed on finding a husband, they're man-traps, but if they show no interest in getting married anytime soon, they are good-time girls who deserve whatever they get or career girls who are at risk of losing their feminine softness and appeal. And no matter what they do, they are always fair game for men. Men can paw them, corner them, stick their hands up their skirts, ask intrusive questions about their boyfriends, pour drinks into them to soften them up for sex, get on the floor at a company party and look up their skirts--and women have to dodge them without wounding their egos, protect themselves without making the men look bad, be good sports about it all, and examine their own behaviour for what might have encouraged the men to act like that. The game is rigged against them, but they don't fully understand that because the conceptual tools to think that way don't exist in their world. Each one just has to navigate the maze as best she can and hope to come out labelled a success. Wives disappear from the narrative because their stories are officially over now, but husbands just carry on as they always have because their identities haven't changed with marriage. If anyone ever suggests that feminism wasn't (and isn't) necessary, this book ought to provide sufficient rejoinder. Jaffe doesn't analyse any of this either, certainly not as anything like a system of power and gender roles; she just tells the story as she knows it. And it's a really great story. I love this book. And in case I've made it sound too dark, it's frequently pretty funny, too, in a very sharp-edged way.
She and the other women in the book, none of them older than their early 20s, have absorbed the lessons that their goal in life is to marry a suitable man and then their life can begin properly. Their only source of identity is as a chosen companion to that man. He will determine who she is, where she lives, what she's worth, what she needs. They only really exist in their reflection in men's eyes. They know perfectly well that most of these men are shits, but they never question the basic assumptions of their world. If they don't succeed on the terms of that world, they assume that the failure is their own--they have failed as women. They were too frigid or too easy, too accommodating or not accommodating enough, too needy or too independent, too sexy or not sexy enough, too pliant or too opinionated, too sophisticated or not sophisticated enough. If they sleep with a man, they were too easy and if they get pregnant they were clearly trying to trap a nice man into marriage. If they refuse to sleep with a man, they are cold and don't understand a man's needs. If they flirt, they are fickle and silly and contemptible, but if they don't flirt, they are insufficiently feminine and need to be brought down a peg or two. If they are clearly focussed on finding a husband, they're man-traps, but if they show no interest in getting married anytime soon, they are good-time girls who deserve whatever they get or career girls who are at risk of losing their feminine softness and appeal. And no matter what they do, they are always fair game for men. Men can paw them, corner them, stick their hands up their skirts, ask intrusive questions about their boyfriends, pour drinks into them to soften them up for sex, get on the floor at a company party and look up their skirts--and women have to dodge them without wounding their egos, protect themselves without making the men look bad, be good sports about it all, and examine their own behaviour for what might have encouraged the men to act like that. The game is rigged against them, but they don't fully understand that because the conceptual tools to think that way don't exist in their world. Each one just has to navigate the maze as best she can and hope to come out labelled a success. Wives disappear from the narrative because their stories are officially over now, but husbands just carry on as they always have because their identities haven't changed with marriage. If anyone ever suggests that feminism wasn't (and isn't) necessary, this book ought to provide sufficient rejoinder. Jaffe doesn't analyse any of this either, certainly not as anything like a system of power and gender roles; she just tells the story as she knows it. And it's a really great story. I love this book. And in case I've made it sound too dark, it's frequently pretty funny, too, in a very sharp-edged way.
June 22, 2011
Wednesday 2nd January 1952; 8.45am; New York City:
“You see them every morning at a quarter to nine, rushing out of the maw of the subway tunnel, filing out of Grand Central Station, crossing Lexington and Park and Madison and Fifth avenues, the hundreds and hundreds of girls. Some of them look eager and some look resentful, and some look as if they haven’t left their beds yet. Some of them have been up since six-thirty in the morning, the ones who commute from Brooklyn and Yonkers and new Jersey and Statten Island and Connecticut. They carry the morning newspapers and overstuffed handbags. Some of them are wearing pink or chartreuse fuzzy overcoats and five year-old ankle strap shoes and have their hair up in pin curls under kerchiefs. Some of them are wearing chic black suits and kid gloves and carrying their lunches in violet-sprigged Bonwit Teller bags. None of them has enough money.”
One of those woman heading out of Grand Central Station, on a cold foggy morning, was Caroline Bender. Her college boyfriend, the man she had expected to marry, had left her, and so her new job was to be more than the economic necessity she had anticipated. It would be the focus of her life until she found her feet again.
Caroline was starting work as a secretary, in the typing pool of Fabian Publications. The Best of Everything is her story, and the story of four other women she meets at work.
Mary Agnes is the woman who knows just what is going on at Fabians, though she doesn’t expect to be there for long. She is making detailed wedding plans, and looking forward to the future when she will be a housewife and a mother. April came to the city from a small town with dreams of becoming an actress, but she struggled and so she took a job in the typing pool and dreamed of love and marriage instead. Gregg is an actress too, and she has had some success, but she has to take on office work to tide her over while she looks for more opportunities. And Barbara is a young divorcee, focused on working hard and doing whatever she must to hold on to her job and support her child.
I was pulled into all of their lives, and those women provoked so many responses. Pride in Caroline as she moved up towards an editor’s position. Happiness for Mary Agnes as she shone at the wedding she had dreamed of for so long. Worry for April, as she so often saw love and a happy ending that wasn’t there. Fear for Gregg as her love became obsession. And such admiration for Barbara as she worked so hard for her child’s future.
There’s much, much more than that, but I can’t set out the whole plot.
Rona Jaffe paints wonderful,richly detailed pictures of these women and their world. I saw so many places, met so many people, and I watched the seasons change and the years pass.
All of the details rang true.
There is a great deal of dialogue, and the conversations are so varied and so real that they are a joy to read.
I can forgive a novel from the 1950s that spoke clearly and honestly about many subjects that weren’t generally spoken about then – subjects like sexual harassment, abortion, unequal pay and opportunities – many things. A few under-developed characters among so many. The odd cliché.
But I can’t quite forgive the Best of Everything for rather too much emphasis on love and marriage as the ultimate goal, and for having all five leading ladies either sailing into the sunset or undone by love. Or for making its one older career woman a harridan.
I loved the happy endings, I accepted the unhappy endings, but I just would have liked to see one woman stepping towards an independent future, becoming a successful professional, treating her staff and colleagues well …
But that’s not to say that I didn’t race through the chapters or that I didn’t love it - I did!
It’s a wonderful period-piece and a very readable book.
“You see them every morning at a quarter to nine, rushing out of the maw of the subway tunnel, filing out of Grand Central Station, crossing Lexington and Park and Madison and Fifth avenues, the hundreds and hundreds of girls. Some of them look eager and some look resentful, and some look as if they haven’t left their beds yet. Some of them have been up since six-thirty in the morning, the ones who commute from Brooklyn and Yonkers and new Jersey and Statten Island and Connecticut. They carry the morning newspapers and overstuffed handbags. Some of them are wearing pink or chartreuse fuzzy overcoats and five year-old ankle strap shoes and have their hair up in pin curls under kerchiefs. Some of them are wearing chic black suits and kid gloves and carrying their lunches in violet-sprigged Bonwit Teller bags. None of them has enough money.”
One of those woman heading out of Grand Central Station, on a cold foggy morning, was Caroline Bender. Her college boyfriend, the man she had expected to marry, had left her, and so her new job was to be more than the economic necessity she had anticipated. It would be the focus of her life until she found her feet again.
Caroline was starting work as a secretary, in the typing pool of Fabian Publications. The Best of Everything is her story, and the story of four other women she meets at work.
Mary Agnes is the woman who knows just what is going on at Fabians, though she doesn’t expect to be there for long. She is making detailed wedding plans, and looking forward to the future when she will be a housewife and a mother. April came to the city from a small town with dreams of becoming an actress, but she struggled and so she took a job in the typing pool and dreamed of love and marriage instead. Gregg is an actress too, and she has had some success, but she has to take on office work to tide her over while she looks for more opportunities. And Barbara is a young divorcee, focused on working hard and doing whatever she must to hold on to her job and support her child.
I was pulled into all of their lives, and those women provoked so many responses. Pride in Caroline as she moved up towards an editor’s position. Happiness for Mary Agnes as she shone at the wedding she had dreamed of for so long. Worry for April, as she so often saw love and a happy ending that wasn’t there. Fear for Gregg as her love became obsession. And such admiration for Barbara as she worked so hard for her child’s future.
There’s much, much more than that, but I can’t set out the whole plot.
Rona Jaffe paints wonderful,richly detailed pictures of these women and their world. I saw so many places, met so many people, and I watched the seasons change and the years pass.
All of the details rang true.
There is a great deal of dialogue, and the conversations are so varied and so real that they are a joy to read.
I can forgive a novel from the 1950s that spoke clearly and honestly about many subjects that weren’t generally spoken about then – subjects like sexual harassment, abortion, unequal pay and opportunities – many things. A few under-developed characters among so many. The odd cliché.
But I can’t quite forgive the Best of Everything for rather too much emphasis on love and marriage as the ultimate goal, and for having all five leading ladies either sailing into the sunset or undone by love. Or for making its one older career woman a harridan.
I loved the happy endings, I accepted the unhappy endings, but I just would have liked to see one woman stepping towards an independent future, becoming a successful professional, treating her staff and colleagues well …
But that’s not to say that I didn’t race through the chapters or that I didn’t love it - I did!
It’s a wonderful period-piece and a very readable book.
June 8, 2011
"You see them every morning at a quarter to nine, rushing out of the maw of the subway tunnel, filing out of Grand Central Station, crossing Lexington and Park and Madison and Fifth avenues, the hundreds and hundreds of girls. Some of them look eager and some look resentful, and some of them look as if they haven’t left their beds yet. Some of them have been up since six-thirty in the morning, the ones who commute from Brooklyn and Yonkers and New Jersey and Staten Island and Connecticut. They carry the morning newspapers and overstuffed handbags. Some of them are wearing pink or chartreuse fuzzy overcoats and five-year-old ankle-strap shoes and have their hair up in pin curls underneath kerchiefs. Some of them are wearing chic black suits (maybe last year’s but who can tell?) and kid gloves and are carrying their lunches in violet-sprigged Bonwit Teller paper bags. None of them has enough money."
-- The Best of Everything, by Rona Jaffe
This was another one of those mid-century career novels I read on my Alaska cruise. Even more so than the "Gray Flannel Suit", I felt like "The Best of Everything" was speaking directly to me, even if it was written for the young career women of the 1950s. Turns out not that while women today of course have much more opportunity, better pay, and more legal protections than our foremothers, the challenges that young women face at the start of their careers, the tradeoffs and choices we have to make, are not, really, so different than what they were. Though fortunately we now have such a thing as the sexual harrassment lawsuit to provide some measure of protection against what these women went through.
The women in "The Best of Everything" are career girls for sure, but with their minds on love as well as work. Many consider it a Sex in the City forerunner for the Ozzie and Harriet set. I appreciate any novel that shows a different side of women in the 50s outside of sock hops and Marilyn Monroe. I think it's a hugely complex decade that is too often plastered over with cultural cliches, and definitely so on the female side. So while guilty of several cliches itself, "The Best of Everything" is well worth a read, both for its portrayal of its times, and for what it has to teach us about our own.
-- The Best of Everything, by Rona Jaffe
This was another one of those mid-century career novels I read on my Alaska cruise. Even more so than the "Gray Flannel Suit", I felt like "The Best of Everything" was speaking directly to me, even if it was written for the young career women of the 1950s. Turns out not that while women today of course have much more opportunity, better pay, and more legal protections than our foremothers, the challenges that young women face at the start of their careers, the tradeoffs and choices we have to make, are not, really, so different than what they were. Though fortunately we now have such a thing as the sexual harrassment lawsuit to provide some measure of protection against what these women went through.
The women in "The Best of Everything" are career girls for sure, but with their minds on love as well as work. Many consider it a Sex in the City forerunner for the Ozzie and Harriet set. I appreciate any novel that shows a different side of women in the 50s outside of sock hops and Marilyn Monroe. I think it's a hugely complex decade that is too often plastered over with cultural cliches, and definitely so on the female side. So while guilty of several cliches itself, "The Best of Everything" is well worth a read, both for its portrayal of its times, and for what it has to teach us about our own.
January 27, 2016
This felt like such a classic chick lit! I enjoyed every moment of it and at times found it hard to let it out of hand. This is the story of 4 young, single ladies living and working in New York around 1950s. At times it felt a bit like Sex and the City, only that they drink and smoke waaaaay more.
What surprised me the most was how misogynistic the society was at the time: the most important thing for a woman was to find a good husband. She could have a job until she find it, but afterwards... she was expected to quit and cater for the "man of her dreams". I was kind of expecting it, but it felt so strange actually reading about it.
What surprised me the most was how misogynistic the society was at the time: the most important thing for a woman was to find a good husband. She could have a job until she find it, but afterwards... she was expected to quit and cater for the "man of her dreams". I was kind of expecting it, but it felt so strange actually reading about it.
January 27, 2018
Published in 1958, this novel about five women working at a publishing firm in the early part of the decade has a certain fascination as a vivid time capsule. But did people really drink as much as all that in those days? I felt hungover if I read too much at once. The book was engrossing enough, but most of all it had me feeling grateful that I was not a young working woman in the 1950s (#metoo).
March 19, 2022
Overall I really liked this! In the introduction Jaffe says it’s a sociological book, which makes sense, though it makes for a bit of an overly long book. The book follows multiple women (Caroline is the MC if there is one, but there’s also Gregg, April, and Barbara) from about January 1952- December 54. They’re all from different types of lives, and continue to have very different lives in NYC. The women are all really well done. I didn’t love all the adultery, but maybe that’s just NYC at this time. It reminded me of Mad Men (the office atmosphere, everyone sleeping around) and The Group. I didn’t love that the last chapter was from a man’s perspective as it’s a book about the women, but I also understand what Jaffe was doing. I’m glad I read this.
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