It seems I am not the only one to have picked up a George Apley book recently. I did a lot of things last week to occupy my mind including reading a lot of books and seeing a lot of movies. Marquand’s book is one I finished and I have to say I think it is brilliant. It takes a while for you to realize the tone the author has taken. At times it seems like a serious tribute to a Boston blueblood, but there is this impish tone that comes through in Marquand’s writing. Plus I enjoyed reading about the city in which I live. Boston seems so caught in the past sometimes. Often it feels like the city has one foot in the past and one foot in the future and you don’t know what direction she wants to step.
The Late George Apley is a fascinating portrait of a man caught between lives. Born into an aristocratic family, George Apley was being groomed for a life even before he was born. His feeble attempts at rebellion are sad and you long to shake him out of his stupor. George Apley falls in love with a woman not of his social class, named Mary Monahan. And even though she is a respectable woman in her own circle, their love cannot be. In his love letters to her, you see a glimpse of the man behind the curtain:

Darling: —-
Once and for all I want you to know that I mean every word I tell you. I never knew how dull existence was until I saw you. If your father is worried by my attitude towards you, I think I had better spearl to him myself. I shall gladly tell him what I have told you, that I love you adn want to marry you, and I shall try all my life to make you happy. If my own family were to see how sweet you are, how unuterrably beautiful, they would want it, too. Believe me, believe me, eveything I say I mean….

A brilliantly and subtly written book about a life full of disappointment and regret, Marquand wrote a great satire about Boston brahims. One that even the brahmins believed in apparently.