The Best of Everything - Good Old Reads

The Best of Everything - Penguin Classics

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe is uncomfortable on so many levels.

High Point: The resolutions are tight and satisfying with a mixture of sadness and humor.

Low Point: It’s a bit like the literary version of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” When will it end?

Author: Rona Jaffe

Publication Date: 1958

Genre: Fiction

Central Park Bench - Rona Jaffe Foundation — The Rona Jaffe Foundation park bench in New York’s Central Park

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The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe is uncomfortable on so many levels.

To begin with, it’s uncomfortable because it’s not the kind of book typically picked up by someone in my demographic: old guy. This novel is about five young women setting out on careers and relationships in New York City in 1952. Selected for a book discussion by one of my reading groups, it was a fine choice. For one thing, it’s generally healthy to read a classic novel that falls outside your normal area of interest—especially if it makes you a little uneasy.

This book is uncomfortable because of its depiction of the supporting male characters. They range from the lecherous drunk at the office party to the jerk who’s in the relationship just for the sex to the empathetic fella who’s sensitive, caring and knows just what to say every time. It’s uncomfortable because I think I’ve met all these guys.

This book is uncomfortable because the women in the novel expect the men in the office and elsewhere to hit on them constantly, and be generally demanding and condescending. And they simply accept it. That’s uncomfortable because that’s the way it really was, and still is, although to a lesser degree, I think.

Any book that evokes a reaction like this is a good one. But the shine begins to tarnish just over halfway when the text gets repetitious and tedious. How many different ways can a character express an undying love for the guy who left her for someone else just before the wedding? Or for the married guy who can’t leave his wife? And on and on.

It’s like the literary equivalent of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” When will it end?

When it does finally end, though, the resolutions are tight and satisfying with a mixture of sadness and humor.

The Best of Everything won’t be the best novel you’ll ever read. But I wish I had read it years ago. And if you are of a certain age, it may be a walk down memory lane—albeit a somewhat uncomfortable one.