2024 the best of everything novel review

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(as of Oct 21, 2024 11:47:14 UTC - Details)

Rona Jaffe's beloved novel about 1950s NYC women in the workplace that paved the way for the #MeToo movement and iconic cultural touchstones like Sex and the City and Mad Men, now for the first time in Penguin Classics, in a 65th anniversary edition with an introduction by New Yorker staff writer Rachel Syme
 
A Penguin Classic
 
When Rona Jaffe’s superb page-turner was first published in 1958, it changed contemporary fiction forever. Some readers were shocked, but millions more were electrified when they saw themselves reflected in its story of five young employees of a New York publishing company. Sixty-five years later, The Best of Everything remains touchingly—and sometimes hilariously—true to the personal and professional struggles women face in the city. There’s Ivy League Caroline, who dreams of graduating from the typing pool to an editor’s office; naïve country girl April, who within months of hitting town reinvents herself as the woman every man wants on his arm; and Gregg, the free-spirited actress with a secret yearning for domesticity. Jaffe follows their adventures with intelligence, sympathy, and prose as sharp as a paper cut.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (March 14, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014313731X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0143137313
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.03 x 0.82 x 7.7 inches
Reviewer: Ann
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Still insightful
Review: I was born just one year before “The Best of Everything” was written, but still I related to so much of what the characters experienced. The struggles women face in their desire to be independent, respected and taken seriously have not changed all that much since the early fifties. We still have individual wants and desires that often conflict with the expectations of society, our families, and even ourselves. Rona Jaffe has crafted a rich story peopled by iconic female (and male) stereotypes that illustrate some very real life situations honestly and with feelings that still ring true. A big plus for me was the lovely and detailed descriptions of New York in the 1950’s. This is a very well written book that captures a specific era while remaining timeless in what it reveals about women, men and how they strive for what they think will be a happy and meaningful life.

Reviewer: A.C.AriasJose
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Bought this for a class
Review: I read about this book from an article in The New Yorker. The article said that this is the first novel that depicted sexual harassment of women in the workplace. I bought this on Kindle and I enjoyed reading it.First, it was a good read. The two main characters were well fleshed out such that I became invested in the story.Second, the scenes, though written in the 1950s about women in the 1950s, read like it it was written today about women of these days.Third, I liked the interweaving of the work life with the inner conflict of the main characters.Fourth, the main thing that any modern feminist would criticize about this book is that marriage and being in a relationship with a man is still presented as the ideal path for women. Of course, it may be argued that it is a commentary on the prevailing value of that time that marriage was the ideal life goal for women. It may certainly be argued that the protagonist chose career above a romantic relationship.Fifth, I like the ambiguous ending. The main character rose to be a respected editor. She loved her work. When the man who dumped her came back, she was honest enough to admit to him that she still cared for him, but when he proposed that she move to Texas to be near him so she can be his mistress, she declined. She loved her job. The last scene was her being photographed with a famous celebrity whom her magazine was profiling. She got the best of everything.

Reviewer: David Pollack
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: the ups and downs of everything
Review: This book starts off well, creating a moment of New York office life in the mid 50s, the young women who populate its huge anonymous typing pools, and the lives of a few. Some follow the expected path of marriage, children, and lives in the suburbs. Others seek almost hopeless career advancement. Our main character is tossed and turned, becomes an editor, and at her most hopeless tragic life moment is whisked off to Christmas cheer in Las Vegas by a devastating but idiotic movie star client. Go figger.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: gorgeous and sad and brilliant
Review: What a fantastic book. Clean, thoughtful, deeply observant prose. This novel could stand as a primary source on (white) women’s lives in mid 20th C America. I did not expect their stories to end as they did, and the last chapter was so deftly and darkly ironic. Wonderful.

Reviewer: K. Hudson
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Fun to read
Review: I read this book one chapter at a time at bedtime, and it was an enjoyable way to end the day. I liked the characters, the writing was descriptive, and it gave me an idea of what young working women in New York City in the 1950s were like. I guess it was "scandalous" for it's time, but pretty tame compared to romance books published today. I also bought the DVD of the movie that was made after the book became a bestseller, and I was sorry that the movie didn't match up with the book exactly (though that's a problem with the movie and not the book.)

Reviewer: A reader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Every woman should read this
Review: If you were in your 20s in the Fifties or Sixties, you lived it. If you were in your 20s in the Eighties or Nineties, your mother did, and if you’re younger than that, your grandmother did. This isn’t chick lit, it’s a stunningly accurate and penetrating (andpage-turning) documentary.

Reviewer: Ellen Fagan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 5 young women meet 5 entirely different fates in Manhattan.
Review: I believe this is Jaffe's very first novel and, to my mind, also the best. Great literature? No...but character-driven, engrossing, emotionally involving and very, very juicy. Quite dated (takes place in the early 50s) but still a steamy and believably accurate account of what transpired for women venturing out on their own at the time...the brilliant, driven, heartbroken college grad; the sweet hayseed who loses her innocence; the "bad girl" who pursues an acting career only to lose everything over a cruel mentor; a single mom who exudes quiet strength & dignity and an absolutely provincial chick from the Bronx who smugly pursues her housewife destiny and is none the worse for it. They all surface at a large, glitzy publishing house for a time and live with the rampant, blatant sexism that was typical for the times but seems horrifying today. An ultra-enjoyable read with memorable, fully fleshed-out characters.

Reviewer: Yvonne Bonnie Valles
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: a timeless story of the intersection of dreams, ambition and those who hold power
Review: Although this was written in the early 50s it sadly reflects the reality of the business world 70 years later.Jaffe artfully creates characters that embody these young women in their quest for a meaningful life, their struggles and the bonds they build (including with themselves) along the way.I loved this book….. TOTALLY believable

Reviewer: Mel
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Well-written and interesting to understand what it was like back then for women

Reviewer: Irene
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Muy entretenido. Aunque fue escrito hace años, sigue siendo actual. Muy recomendado. El primer libro que termino en mucho tiempo.

Reviewer: Alex
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Auch ich bin durch die Serie Mad Men auf diesen Roman aufmerksam geworden. Ich habe angefangen zu lesen, und habe nicht viel erwartet. Doch schon man ein paar Seiten war klar, dass der Roman weit mehr als nur historisch interessant ist. Die Sprache ist sehr elegant, die teilweise sehr witzigen Dialoge erwecken die Charaktere zum Leben und das Setting wirkt absolut authentisch.Es geht um einige junge Frauen, die in den frühen 50er Jahren versuchen, in New York, Fuß zu fassen. Dabei erfahren wir sehr viel über die Arbeitswelt und das Rollenverständnis von Frauen (und Männern) in dieser Ära. Teilweise hatte ich den Eindruck, dass Matthew Weiner (der Schöpfer von Mad Men) sich von diesem Text hat inspirieren lassen. Die Protagonisten erleben wir im Job, im Privatleben, in Liebesbeziehungen - alles mit einer für die Epoche erstaunlich freizügigen Sicht der Dinge und einem auch heute noch absolut greifenden Humor.Ich kann den Roman ohne Einschränkungen empfehlen. Es ist ein wahres Lesevergnügen.

Reviewer: Dancer Girl
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I love a good "girl" book and this one delivered but not in a frothy way that so many more modern ones do. I like the 50's social history aspect that can only be delivered by a book written in that time. The characters were great contrasts to one another. I couldn't put it down. It helps that I'm currently enthralled with mid-century America. Enjoy!

Reviewer: Livinstella
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: J'ai beaucoup aimé ce livre sans prétentions qui restitue bien l'ambiance d'une époque.Les personnages sont attachants et la peinture de New York des 50's saisissante.