Word: marquands
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LIFE AT HAPPY KNOLL (167 pp.) - John P. Marquand- Little, Brown...
...occasionally get high there beyond the point of no return, or men in grey flannel suits may make unconvincing passes at fellow members' wives, but no one ever did a full-dress, inside-the-country-club story-until that Boswell of the American upper middle class, John P. Marquand, took on the task. Life at Happy Knoll (a series of sketches that first appeared in SPORTS ILLUSTRATED) is deftly ironic social comedy, as slight as the shorts of Happy Knoll's women members and as smooth as the club's putting greens...
...Author Marquand's mellow, witty writing sticks as close to the characters' speech as a tonsil, as close to their skins as a T shirt. He really loves them all, with good reason. Their camaraderie is real and appealing, as is their occasional touch of middle-aged resignation (sometimes known as wisdom). Marquand suggests that the country club is an oasis of sanity shut away "from a few of the more unpleasant realities that surround us." With its parking spaces achoke, its locker rooms asweat, its bars awash, and a loyal barkeep resolutely giving the little woman...
...reverse of Oscar Wilde's cynics, for they know the value of everything and the price of almost nothing. They spout dialogue like a Wall Street high-speed ticker, but the quotations mean less. At their best they are faulty reproductions of two old masters, Fitzgerald and Marquand. At their worst they share what 27-year-old Novelist Flood (whose 1953 novel. Love Is a Bridge, was much overpraised) seems to share with many another young writer these days-tired blood...
...remainder of the "Guide" contains articles on various business and professional fields written by men who are leaders in them. Dr. Paul Dudley White '08 describes the medical profession; John P. Marquand '15 gives his advice to would-be writers; H. V. Kaltenborn '09 discusses careers in radio and television; and Dean Bundy advises interested students on college teaching...