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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

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It's always a bit challenging reviewing a book which spawned a memorable, but altogether different in feel, movie, as this book did. One is more apt to run into the movie on cable than to run across the book. Although I like the movie, I liked the book much, much better. The movie features sweeping plot turns, while the book is a matter of simple, credible steps. The theme is the aftermath of World War II, and recovering one's civic sense after dealing with it. In modern terms, it might be called the sequel to Saving Private Ryan, in which the captain returns to civilian life.

We pick up the plot in medias res--the hero has stumbled, uninspired through a few years of peacetime which hold none of the promise that seemed evident prior to the war. The author does a good job of plugging us into this man-and-his-family plot without either the soap suds or a preachy tone taking over. Nothing in the book is a particular revelation--there are no real gasps in the plot. But the enterprise is carried off in a competent, undecorated style which keeps one hooked right through to the end. There's a world of metaphor here, but these characters feel real, and the metaphoric situations that the hero and his family must endure to find a place in a changed world come off more live than memorex. A domestic drama can indeed be written without losing the reader or drenching the reader in soap.

This is one of those good rainy afternoon reads. It won't save your soul, but it might help you slog through another cloudy day.

With so much being written about the "Greatest Generation" the story generally ends sometime around V-J day. Sloan Wilson's insightful novel gives readers an opportunity to see how a World War II veteran might handle the rat race in 1950s New York City.

Tom and Betsey Rath are married with three kids trying to keep up with the Joneses in their Connecticut suburb while Tom climbs the corporate ladder in Manhatten. The day to day conflicts are pretty interesting, but about halfway through the novel, Tom sees someone that brings his war past into the present.

The title of the book has come to mean the bland working man of the 1950s, but our hero Tom Rath is not bland. He has enough inner conflicts to field an Olympic team. Tom isn't some sycophant trying to get ahead, but a guy who killed and watched his friends get killed in the war. I wasn't expecting the depth of character.

The novel is written in clear direct language that makes it easy to follow the story and the real complexities of life. Stylistically, the omnipotent narrator is usually in the head of our hero Tom, but he occasionally jumps around to other minds for variation. Just as you've made up your mind about a simple character the narrator jumps into their skin and they too become a flesh and blood person.

The modern day criticism is that the novel has a happy ending, especially since happy endings are frowned upon in post-modern literature. But the important part of the book is not the resolution but the journey and Wilson gets the journey just right. I'm glad I gave the book a chance.

Every now and again, a book or movie is produced which captures the spirit of the era in which it is written. Sometimes this is done by accident (INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was seen by right-wingers as a warning about communist infiltration, and by left-winters as an attack on McCarthyism, when it fact it was neither) and sometimes on purpose (WALL STREET was an almost gleefully self-conscious in its attempt to sum up the greed-crazed 80s), but the effect is basically the same: the work in question becomes a catchphrase, encapsulating not just a story but the spirit of a decade or even a whole generation.

Sloan Wilson's THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT is such a work. Intended as mere novelized autobiography, it struck such a chord with readers that, decades after it was written, it still symbolizes for many the oddly shallow dark side of what was supposedly America's "Golden Era" - the 1950s.

SUIT is the story of Tom Rath, a middle-class American everyman who, in the mid-1950s, experiences a kind of premature midlife crisis. On the surface, Rath seems to be rock solid - he has a beautiful wife, three kids, a car, a house in the New York suburbs, and a good job with a secure future. Stepping off the A train with briefcase in hand, his missus always has a cold Martini on hand, and a nice meal on the stove. Hell, his aged grandmother is even about to will him a mansion on Long Island! By the plastic-fantastic standards of the 50s, he should be ecstatic. But he isn't. He isn't even happy, and neither is Mrs. Rath. They are, in fact, pretty miserable.

The Rath's prosperity is actually an illusion. His wife feels emotionally disconnected from him ever since he returned from World War II - and rightly so, since can't bring himself to talk about it or the seventeen men he killed while it was going on. His kids are spoiled. His car is a piece of junk on its last legs, and his "starter house" seems to have turned out to be his burial plot. His grandmother's "mansion" is a rotting hulk mired in zoning problems and lawsuits. Even his "secure" job downtown is an unsatisfying bore.

Prodded by feelings that his life is passing him by and that he has failed to achieve any of his prewar dreams, Rath chucks up his old job and takes a new one as a speechwriter for a workaholic millionaire. As he does so, he encounters an old acquaintance from his army days, the sight of whom forces him to face some very unpleasant truths from his wartime past - truths that threaten to destroy his marriage and ruin him financially. At the same time, he struggles to fit in in the go-go, cutthroat atmosphere of his new employer (his immediate superior, Ogden, is so undermining, condescending and rude that the normally placid Rath has fantasies of killing him). Over time, Rath - whose growing cynicism is alienting his wife even further - begins to question absolutely everything in his life - from his marriage to the corporate rat race. He's even forced into painful self-examination over his actions during World War Two. And this is the crux of the novel: will Rath open up to his wife - which could lead to ruination and divorce - or will he continue to play the tight-lipped, buttoned down Mr. Cleaver role that has been suffocating him since the end of the war?

SUIT is by no means a perfect book. The pace is often sluggish, and a lot of Wilson's prose is bland and colorless - although this may be by design, as his reminiscences of the war are extremely vivid and well-drawn, probably Wilson's way of indicating that Rath's past is more vivid than his present. There are some bizarre point-of-view shifts which occur surprisingly late in the novel, and the sub-plots are all wrapped up so conveniently it threatens the story's integrity. The final exchanges between Rath and his wife are totally unrealistic - the dialogue, realistic up to that point, becomes unbelievably melodramatic. But these flaws, while significant, don't really diminish the book's laurels.
Whether Wilson intended it to be or not, SUIT is a generational tale: Rath symbolizes the silent and painful battle that WW2 veterans waged with themselves after 1945, when they returned to find, in many cases, that that American Dream that they had fought and killed for consisted of nothing more than crass advertising, jingo patriotism and banal materialism, all set to the tune of a merry commercial jingle. Was it possible for such men to find meaning in such a shallow world as "Leave it to Beaver" represented? Sloan's answer to this question may surprise you.

Tom Rath, a WWII veteran who survived against incredible odds, feels stressed, distant and unhappy. He has a wife and three kids and works in an unchallenging administrative job that affords him but modest pay and no real room for advancement. He tries for and gets what turns out to be an uncertain, but better paying, position at the United Broadcasting Corp. With his new salary and the sudden death of his 93 year old grandmother, his discontented wife decides to sell their modest house in a boring suburb and move the family into the estate Tom has inherited. Meanwhile Tom, feeling detached and cynical, struggles in his new job to provide what he thinks is expected of him. At the root of this are his growing WWII recollections of a long romantic affair with Maria and, later, of accidentally killing his best friend -both memories triggered by repeatedly running across a fellow war vet now working as an elevator operator in his building.

There are many interesting and important subplots, but the three interrelated central issues confronting Tom regard his attitude toward his wife, his employer, and his past (Maria and the son struggling to survive in post-war Italy). The tension and joylessness that pervade his life hinge on whether or not he can resolve these conflicts. He resolves the issues at home by standing up and fighting for passage of a school bond measure; the issue with his employer by being completely open and honest (instead of playing the cynical game he thinks he is expected to play); and the issue with his past, by committing to send $100 a month to help his son in Italy -and coming clean with his wife Betty about his affair with Maria.

In confronting every painful or difficult decision he knows to be right he goes through the same thought process that gave him the mental strength and self-control he needed in the war (1. "It doesn't really matter." 2. "Here goes nothing"; and 3. "It will be interesting to see what happens").

In my view, Wilson's thesis -especially given the happy ending -is that, by being honest and taking responsibility for your life and choices you allow everything to turn out -if not exactly how you expected- then at least for the best. Your life then becomes authentic and joyful, not merely a stressful, dutiful, and impersonal routine to be endured until things somehow work out (because they never will, and you will simply remain unhappy until you die).

In other words, by successfully confronting the past you reclaim the present (and future) -and every moment becomes precious once more.

Looking at the novel as a historical document, it gives me a deeper understanding of the sense of ennui or drift that many WWII vets underwent after returning from the war, and their feeling of being between wars -a desire to enjoy life now while there's peace, and not throw enjoyment of the now away on an ultimately futile or empty pursuit of title or status.

Implicitly, it communicates well the feeling of survival-guilt or a soldier's sense of unreality toward his surroundings after the unimaginable death and horror he has experienced during the war. Tom Rath must wake up from the past by developing a real connection to the world around him in the present. He resists the pervasive and lethal cynicism by playing it straight and taking full responsibility for his life.

I've known about "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" for years but it was the movie not the book. For the record I have avoided looking at movie. The title turned me off. However while wandering through the library, I happened to see the book on a shelf. That was when I found out the boring sounding movie was based on a critically-acclaimed, enormously best selling novel by Sloan Wilson.

Set in the years after World War II, Tom and Betsy Rath are stereotypical young executive-suburban New York couple. He is an executive with a charitable foundation. She is a housewife with three young children. Their house is too small. Tom doesn't make enough money and neither is very happy with their existence. Both (especially Tom) are just going though the motions.

The quiet dreariness of their circumstances forces Tom to search for a better paying job. At the same time, Tom's formerly wealthy grandmother is dying ultimately leaving them her estate and little else. Finally, Tom is haunted by events during his service as an Army officer during WWII.

Their saving grace is the two of them are truly devoted to each other and their family.

Things come to a head rapidly. Tom and Betsy are forced to examine their existence and really determine what it is they really want in their lives. They must confront the truth of their existence and develop the strength to make the changes to increase the quality of their lives and end their quiet desperation.

The amazing thing about this book is that it still holds up after over 50 years. This book is about taking charge of your life rather than just doing things that are expected of you. By that I mean, attending the right schools, hanging out with the right crowd, working for the right company, making the right career move, etc. It's about understanding what you want and living with honesty and integrity.

Now I'll think I'll watch the movie. I hope it lives up to the book.

I read it many years ago and never forgot it. At the time Tom should have been too old for me to identify with, but the author created a man so human it was jarring. You worry about this character. Tom appears calm, but underneath the water his feet are churning and the reader churns with him.

Sloan Wilson, to begin with, is a great writer. He is able to capture a mood, a tention and an empathy for his main character, Mr. Rath, that many authors simply can't. I found myself able to identify with this man (who is my age, 33, though male) so closely it was creepy. He is like me in his tendency to worry so much about the "what if's" in life, that sometimes he doesn't take the risks that maybe he should. Or, if he does take the risks, he is so nervous that everything will fall apart, he can't truly enjoy it. I found myself rooting for him, and feeling his anxiety at every work conference or family incident. I was glad when the story ended, and that it ended as it did, because I don't know if I could have taken any more stress. This book DID stress me out because it is so true, then as well as now. Definitely worth reading.

Being young as I am it's difficult to imagine a time prior to one I currently live. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit gives vivid portrayal of a time sterotyped so much it's true image is blurred beyond actual recognition. Wilson overcomes this splendidly and shows sides of the fifties that is often forgot. This is due to his actual experience of the subject, and not to mention he wrote it then and not decades after. I really enjoyed the character Ralph Hopkins, Tom's boss. He was so hardworking and misunderstood. The technique of showing the story from several points of view (the worker, the housewife, the boss, ect...) adds a lot more depth, it gives you several angles of the time without seeming like too much info. This book has become one of my favorites, mainly due to it's perfect mirror image of our time (if some more modern updates were made), it really is a reminder of how history repeats itself. It also contains a subject that I'm quite fond of, psychology. Every character has his or her own special reasons for doing what they do, it really is interesting...

I really liked this book! I was surprised that I liked it since I grew up in the 1950s and this book was always presented as being about those boring olden days and so why would I want to read it? The catalyst was my adoration of the TV show MAD MEN which has been compared to this book. However, in my opinion, the characters in MAD MEN create their own pain and problems because of their terrible hubris, and although the characters in THE MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT also may bring their problems upon themselves they do so unwittingly and inintentionally and without malice.

This book is about decent, well-meaning people who deserve our respect and understanding. The situations in which they find themselves seem unrelenting to the point where the book seems almost action-packed. These 1950s were not boring. Their problems are dealt with one at a time after having given them as much thought as they have the time for. No, I don't think this book is boring, and the 1950s were about men and women who had a lot more on their minds than getting a mortgage on a house in the suburbs.

In many respects the first third of the novel follows A Thousand Clowns: A Comedy in Three Acts", then includes war horrors similar to "The Naked and the Dead", then evolves into small town life within the confines of "Gilmore Girls" set but 50 years earlier (when things were not that much different) and completes its cycle with a Hollywood-like style happy ending for the "good old boy" -- as seen in countless films.

The occasional flashbacks establish who the main players are: Tom Rath and his debutante wife, Betsy. After appearing on the road for the great American Dream, three children and a suburban life, he spends four years paratrooping Europe during World War II -- all the time seeing some of the most gruesome hand-to-hand combat.

Boys returning from the war were men. And, in that growth experience came great travails and burdens.

Intermixed with protagonist Tom's "second" climb in the social ladder is his unique not-all-business relationship with employer/tycoon Ralph Hopkins. Receiving mixed signals in the beginning, Ralph warms up to Tom thinking he may be the son that he lost in the war which delivered many frightful events and tarnished Tom's boy scout enthusiasm for his otherwise charmed life. "The trouble hadn't been only that he didn't believe in the dream anymore; it was that he didn't even find it interesting or sad in its improbability."

Deep down, after the war when men returned to families four years older, they had to deliver. It was not about money - instead it was only about money. "The important thing is to make money."

But, the man who returned home still has growing pains. He begins to see that with income comes sacrifices - especially of the family. The great wealth gathered by Hopkins is countered by a travesty for a personal life which cannot be mended by even his abilities to gather the greatest purchases. The old saying rings true for hundreds of pages: Money cannot buy happiness.

In the end, Tom reconciles that "Money isn't that important. I'm tough. . . If worse came to worst, I could dig a ditch. . ." Without resorting to remonstrance to the monetary needs or a culture in which he lives requiring the same, Tom effectively utilizes honesty and disclosure to others at times when others would not: disclosure of war time love affair to his wife; criticizing his boss on a speech written by the boss; or denying the opportunity to become a 24/7 tycoon like the boss.

The author lived many of the events of the main character and the insightful passages about the war and the fear and love associated with the same may have been the strongest prose in the novel. Probably a great depiction of how things were perceived during the time of its writing (1955). This reads like a strong screen play which no producer worth his salt could refuse with the timely topic and great roles (1956 with Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones).

This book reveals to the reader what many of the baby boomers' fathers may not told their children. For that ability to touch upon topics which many of the "The Greatest Generation" feel too uncomfortable to discuss, this novel is very valuable.