Customer Reviews

East Side Story: A Novel

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In his fifty-ninth novel in fifty-seven years, Louis Auchincloss continues his thematic focus on the socially prominent families of New York and how they achieved their status. Beginning with David Carnochan, an immigrant from Scotland, a "good burgher with a sharp eye for a deal," who was "a granite pillar of respectability," Auchincloss traces the family through ten characters belonging to four generations, as they successively increase their fortunes and cement their places in the highest echelons of New York society.

The family's pragmatism is shown when Douglas Carnochan purchases a substitute during the Civil War, while his abolitionist brother Andrew fights, is wounded, and returns to the front. Douglas's wife Eliza imposes "standards in manners and morals" on the family, and son Bruce shows how marriages are negotiated when the family's fortunes begin to fail. The reader observes the vulnerability of the family's most idealistic members, as pressure is exerted on them to remember the interests of the family and its businesses as a whole and to ignore the sometimes unethical behavior of relatives.

With the characters' public and private moralities sometimes shown to be at odds, an individual family member's corporate interests often take precedence over what one would consider to be morally "right" behavior toward others. Even the family's penchant for attending the same elite schools is put under the microscope, as is the tendency to keep the wealth in the family by intermarrying with distant cousins. Showing that the family's contribution to the arts, to politics, to teaching, "to any occupation that involved giving out rather than taking in, was minimal," Auchincloss also shows that they are not enviable because of the opportunities that their wealth has given them, but sometimes to be pitied because of their limited outlooks and lack of connection to the outside (real) world.

Auchincloss wisely presents a genealogical diagram at the beginning of the novel, which resembles a series of interconnected short stories, each individual's personality being obvious through Auchincloss's effective changes in tone and conversational styles as the chapters change. While the characters may not be fully rounded, they are individualized enough that the reader will remember them, as each character reveals at least one important characteristic of the family as a whole. The novel is a fascinating sociological study which shows Auchincloss's own closeness to the social milieu that he observes--honest, straightforward, and without a shred of satire. Mary Whipple

I must begin by stating that the world Mr. Achincloss writes of is as alien and as far removed from my world as a world created by a SiFi writer. It is far removed from my world culturely, geographically and philosophically. That is okay though. This little book is a true pearl. Each chapter is a wonderfully crafted sketch of various members of an elite New York family, starting just before the Civil War. Mr Auchincloss certainly has a wonderful command of the language and is certainly a true story teller. This is one of those books that you can read sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph and relish each and every one, almost as a separate entity. I found the writing style easy on the eye and mind and the entire flow of the book was true to itself from beginning to end. A wonderful read and I highly recommend. You probably will want to purchase this one as it deserves more than one read.

Auchincloss continues to amaze me. When I saw this book in the "new fiction" stack at the library, I was astounded, since I would have thought the author would have either passed away, or at least stopped writing, a long long time ago. He began publishing his books almost 60 years ago. Although I share neither the class nor the education of this author, I have always found his books as beautiful as perfectly polished stones. They do not "live" in the way some fiction does, yet you can never forget his characters. This book is no different. It is a sort of chronicle of a family's history, starting in Scotland before the American Civil War, through immigration and settling here in the states. Each generation is seen and described by certain members of that generation. This could be very dry, yet it never fails to entertain. Golly, Mr. Auchincloss! I hope you are still serving up these books in another 20 years! Keep writing!

LIke many of Auchincloss books, ESS is a series of biographical sketches of members of the mythical Cancarhan (sp) clan, that function as individual short stories, but in their whole, make up a history of the clan (and are threaded together with references to other memebers). If you are interested in the subject: the old east coast establisment, Aunchincloss is 'authentic voice"
Auchincloss has the unique ability (like Edith Warton) to both know and be his subject: the now faded anglo-saxon elite (though with a calvinist scottish flavor). he is 90 now, and i hope he has one more book in him:: what happened to the wasp elite, who have definitley lost power and influence since the 60s.

If written by a different author, this generational saga might have been a heavy doorstop of a book. Auchincloss, however, made it a series of short story-like chapters illuminating the characters of twelve members of an East Side (Manhattan) family from the late 1800s to the 1970s in less than 230 pages. The name of each person written about is listed in bold text on a family tree printed on the back of the contents page. Auchincloss is a master writer who draws you in and makes you care about every character one after another. I disagree with one of the critics on Amazon of Auchincloss' last book, _The Scarlet Letters_ who said his style is wooden and his story-telling skills haven't progressed in 50 years. I think his last two books are among his best.

Whats with people selling used copies of this book for multiple times the price of a new one?

This novel based on an actual family portrays the wealthy, privileged families on Manhattan's Upper East Side. He traces the Carnochan clan in American; the first, David, came to New York in 1829 from Glasgow, Scotland "to establish a branch of the family's successful thread business" and thrived during the Civil War. David's youngest son, Peter was a Civil War hero. David died in 1869, after the war, and Peter's remembrances get the story started.

Four generations are traced, mostly men with names of Bruce, Gordon, Maime, Ronny and Pierre. Some women, Louisa, Estelle, plus Eliza and Alida who married into the Carnochan family. By the twentieth century, the'd become lawyers, investment (stocks and bonds), all reputable high class occupations. In 1918, Pierre went to Harvard and on to Wall Street. "A wife can be a great asset, or a great liability." This was the world of debutantes. His cousin went to Yale and became a lawyer with his family's firm. They were a close knit group.

Louisa (called LouLou) was born in 1890 and died in 1955. She'd been a nurse who wished she could have gone on to be a doctor. Her older sister, a dear little thing, Betty, was the "beauty" of the family.

As we saw in the movie, 'West Side Story,' the gangs and lower classes were on opposite ends of town, as is the case with Knoxville today, only to the contrary -- the wealthy live out West of town with the gangs in the east and north. In Chicago, wealth moved North and left the Southside to ethnic groups around the University area. Older houses with walk-up apartments, cheaper one on the top, abound and Geoff sublet a top floor with a multiple, changing "boarders" as time went by.

Louis Auchincloss came from the upper crust and was declared a "living landmark" in 2000. His portrait on inside of back cover is by Cornelia Foss. He has written a slew of novels (60+), his first in 1947, THE INDIFFERENT CHILDREN, and a few non-fiction. From the list of many, these titles appealed to me: THE RECTOR OF JUSTIN (which I own), THE CAT AND THE KING, TALES OF MANHATTAN, and MANHATTAN MONOLOGUES. Non-fiction includes RICHELIEU and THE VANDERBILT ERA. The front portrait is deceiving as she is not a member of the Carnochan clan.