This was a very beloved book in its time. and I can see why. For me, it was like watching a high budget black and white movie where the Men are suave and talk fast and the women sophisticated enough to catch their man by talking backwards while wearing high heels (all hail Ginger Rogers).

Originally written in the 1950s, this is set in the Upper Middle-Class Society of Jewish families living in 1930’s New York. Here parties are lavish, religious practices range from the most orthodox to the downright bacon-eating not kosher, and young teenage girls are dated by a mixture of University boys, Professionals, and Cads. Meanwhile, Europe is tumbling into a War, Hitler is going to invade Czechoslovakia and Nazis have just begun to be more proactive in their hatred of the Jewish populace.


Amongst all of this Majorie Morgenstein (Morningstar) has ambitions to become an actress, a fatal attraction for selfish but pretty Men who like to talk about themselves and their wants for paragraphs, pages, chapters, possibly 3/4 of this book? By the end, Majorie will eventually grow up and make her decision but she will not have an easy journey getting there.

This is a surprisingly well-written characterisation of the social dilemmas of a young woman growing up in a time when freedoms were just being allowed to women to pursue careers and other life paths and yet they were still expected to marry respectable Jews of their own class and settle down. This is probably why the novel became so beloved by Women of past generations as it incapsulates their own dilemmas and growth pains under similar societal pressures. It is perhaps going to date this book as younger generations will perhaps never quite understand how difficult this was.


However, my absolute favourite characters remain the secondary characters that do not quite fit within the sophisticated 1930s New York Society. I especially loved Uncle and Marsha, both are tragically drawn and highlight the sheer shallowness of the more “respectable” people around them and portray what it means to be human and not just playing your societal role.

I also really enjoyed and was surprised by a lot of the social commentary in this book, especially considering it was written in the 1950s and by a male writer. We have an exploration of the double standard of sex before marriage for men and women, there is a lot thought of the importance of religion (in this case Judaism) and it’s meaning in peoples lives, and there is the generational story of children rebelling against their parents' values only to circle around and embrace the same values themselves.

I really enjoyed reading about this slice of 1930’s Jewish America and Majorie brave attempt to circumnavigate it. It’s not a perfect novel but I think Majorie’s world will be with me for a few years to come.