The Man in the Gray Flannel Suitby Sloan Wilson | |
| List(s): | "Carp 500" |
|---|---|
| Category: |
"Fiction - General" |
| Pages: | 304 |
| Year of Publication: | 1955 |
| Date Read: | 04/17/1996 |
| Notes: | This book speaks for a whole generation of Americans. They were the ones who suffered through the Depression, fought WW II, and then found themselves non-coms in America's corporate army. The strains of conformity, the straits of marriage, the stress of children and the striving for success are all faithfully recounted here. This generation of Americans believed passionately that the good life had its roots in material well-being, and when their personal experiences came unraveled, they had little understanding of where to turn. COMMENTS — Sloan Wilson served with the Coast Guard during World War II. After the war, he went to work as a reporter with the Providence Journal in Rhode Island. He liked the work but couldn’t get by on the $50-a-week salary. The frustration over his post-war civilian career was the polar opposite of his time in the Coast Guard where he had commanded ships and cutters with a “certain sense of dignity.” This feeling was shared by others, as illustrated by the experience of a neighbor of his, a highly decorated World War II airman who worked for an advertising agency. “His job was to determine whether people would prefer a rubber spider or a tin frog as a toy in their breakfast cereal box,” said Wilson. These kinds of dilemmas as well as the ever-present conflict between career and family responsibilities gave rise to Wilson’s most famous novel, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. |
| My Rating: | 9 |