Customer Reviews

Kitty Foyle

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As much as I enjoy watching old Ginger Rogers movies, it always saddens me that the film version of "Kitty Foyle" has so overshadowed Morley's novel.

Written in the stream-of-consciousness style, "Kitty Foyle" is both a coming-of-age novel and a novelistic "study" of the white collar career girl of the 1930s. Kitty is from Philadelphia, but spends her high school years in a small town in Illinois, and ultimately ends up working [in the cosmetic industry] in New York City. Morley is excellent at presenting these various mileu unjudgmentally [he leaves that for the reader] but vividly and accurately. He is also excellent at creating "real" characters, who face moral dilemmas and who are changed because of their decisions. It is an entertaining and delightful read, as well as being a thoughtful read.

I'm not going to spend too much time on this review, but I thought that this book deserves a bit of acknowledgement. When Kitty Foyle was released in 1939, it became an instant best seller. I can understand why. Any woman can relate to Kitty Foyle, it's amazing that this book was written by a man with all the hidden thoughts that a woman carries with her each day..he knows them and writes them so well. I felt like I had a long conversation with Kitty in this book and I will re-read it sometime soon b/c there will be pieces that you pick up the 2nd time around. So it is a good buy! I found this book among a stack of dusty old books at my boyfriend's house--after reading it I bought a copy for my best friend to read. One of my favorites.

This book was written in the 1930's but tells the timeless tale of the heartbreak of a love affair that falls apart. It is funny and sweet and so beautifully captures the voice of first love, and the niave idealism of youth. The language used by the author to describe ethinic groups is politcally incorrect by today's standards, however it is not a racist book. I loved it!

Having recently seen the movie on TCM, my mom wanted to read the book. We got this version and she enjoyed it greatly.

I can't comment on the story myself because I did not read it, but I did want to mention that this version has extremely tiny type and is not easy to read. Luckily my mom's vision is pretty good, but it took some effort to read.

I first read Kitty Foyle in high school, over thirty years ago. I couldn't put it down that first time, and I've re-read it several times. The character development of Kitty Foyle, and of the various scenes (Philadelphia working class neighborhood, small-town Illinois, and Manhattan), are unbelievable. The story of Kitty Foyle, from a blue-collar family, going to high school and then falling in love with a main-line Philadelphia family, is fantastic. It was hard for me to believe that it was written by a man, because the emotions and the language are so apt. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's a timeless classic.

The most astonishing thing about "Kitty Foyle" is that it was written by a man. Easy to read, fairly smooth moving, and a window into the 1930's, the book is an interesting read.
BUT the character of Kitty makes me want to scream. Kitty, clearly in need of mothering, seems to be on her way to a productive life when she falls for a guy who is not man enough to stand by her. Kitty is too in love to see she is a tool and makes decisions based on what she thinks is best for her lover.
It is easy to say that my negative feeling toward the character of Kitty is from the prospective of the year 2009. Perhaps, but I know for sure that my mother, born in 1910 who was a voracious reader, would have said EXACTLY the same thing.

I'm not sure who Christopher Morley was- if he actually was a man at all. Kitty Foyle represents the best and worst in femaleness, not to be confused with feminism (although Kitty Foyle was one of the first "career-girls.") This book has been passed through three generations of our family, grandmother, mother, daughter, and now great-granddaughter. It is about Kitty Foyle, who easily becomes your best friend and then your alter-ego, the girl that has to make tough choices, and then cries about them later. She is smart, but not about her choices in men. She regrets the morning after, but you can tell that all her decisions are ethical, even when she has to abort her baby. She is able to laugh at herself, too- her sense of humor is Irish immigrant, and certainly American.