The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
Universally acclaimed when first published in 1955, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit captured the mood of a generation. Its title like Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451 has become a part of America's cultural vocabulary. Tom Rath doesn't want anything extraordinary out of life: just a decent home, enough money to support his family, and a career that won't crush his spirit. After returning from World War II, he takes a PR job at a television network. It is inane, dehumanizing work. But when a series of personal crises force him to reexamine his priorities and take responsibility for his past he is finally moved to carve out an identity for himself. This is Sloan Wilson's searing indictment of a society that had just begun to lose touch with its citizens. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is a classic of American literature and the basis of the award-winning film starring Gregory Peck. "A consequential novel." Saturday Review"
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Community Reviews
They had told each other that they would probably be in the house only one or two years before they could afford something better
Then there was this passage which could have been plucked directly from my brain almost verbatim:As the evening wore on, the men generally fell to divulging dreams of escaping to an entirely different sort of life--to a dairy farm in Vermont or to the management of a motel in Florida.
It's chilling how close that sentiment (at least the part about the farm in Vermont) resonates with my own thoughts in recent years. Rath also complains:
The story started out more slowly than I expected but it steadily built up steam. I could feel Tom Rath's tension, stress, and worries as if they were my own (some are). There was a kind of [a:Horatio Alger Jr.|2117358|Horatio Alger Jr.|https:images.gr-assets.com/authors/1310233977p2/2117358.jpg] final act, but this was one time when I didn't mind--I felt like I needed it.
This book was a peek inside the rat race of the 1950s. To me, it seems not too much has changed.
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