Customer Reviews

Sincerely, Willis Wayde

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

 

 

I've read this book several times: as a teenager, as a young adult, and as a middle-aged adult. Each time I read the book, I discover new insights - many of which are in "grey areas" of right and wrong.

I agree with the first reviewer in that there's not a lot of action in the book - but there shouldn't be a lot of action to direct the reader's attention away from the real subject of seeing one's growth and development, not just in the business world, but in the more complicated world of relationships.

The author creates a quiet and detailed texture of the life of Willis Wayde from humble boyhood to that of a wealthy prominent business man. It was a very good book to sink into and enjoy "rooming" with the charachters. While reading it is was very enjoyable. However, not a whole lot happens and you may feel at the end it was a waste of time. Overall I enjoyed the book and plan to read some other books by Marquand.

This seems to be one of the lesser appreciated John P Marquand novels, published in 1955. I read it first as a college student and it had several messages. One, it depicts an almost idyllic life in New England in the 1920s. The central figure of the novel as it opens, is a boy whose father goes to work for a family mill in New England. The mill is located in a small town and the family patriarch, Henry Harcourt, lives in a big house on the grounds in a fashion that had endured since the Civil war made the family wealthy. The boy's father is an engineer and suspicious of businessmen who, he believes, live off the efforts of workers who are never adequately paid or appreciated. The boy, however, develops a hero worship of the elderly mill owner. We get a picture of an elegant life although it later appears that this is the end of an era. The boy meets the grand daughter of the mill owner and they become friends and eventually near lovers.

As the boy approaches the time for him to go to college, the mill owner sees a kindred spirit and wants to subsidize the boys education so he can attend Harvard. The boy's parents, who still hold small town values that resent patronizing, refuse the gesture and he attends Boston University. In college, he learns the gulf that separates him from the Harcourt family as the girl drifts away and her brother, also a childhood friend, finds new friends and social circles. Willis meets the girl that he will eventually marry but is a bit subdued as the gulf that separates him socially from the wealthy family widens.

He returns to the mill to work and then attends Harvard Business School with the aid of the mill owner who is trying to find a successor generation to replace his own children who prefer luxury and idleness. The old man and the young man form a sort of partnership of achievement amidst a generation that lacks focus. The Depression comes and the Harcourt world is swept away. Willis has to make his own way and his career is the subject of the bulk of the novel. It deals with the longings of a young man for respectability and success plus the compromises necessary in life. The author takes a rather cynical view of Willis and his efforts to get along in the world.

In the end, the hero is not so very heroic but he has done what he must to make his way and he is honorable in his own way. The "Sincerely" in the title is a wry comment on the compromises of a life of upward mobility in 1940s business. That was a time when the professional manager was emerging as a class and a vocation. The picture is honest and interesting although not always heroic. It is one of my favorites and I reread it from time to time.

There are two favorite quotations from the novel that I savor. One is the old man's statement that "There is always a good deal of hatred in a well regulated family." The other is by a gardener who complains to the boy about the bugs that are eating the plants that he cares for. He says, "They simply don't know what we're up against down here. I don't know how it will all turn out." That last quote has been a favorite example of how everyone has his priorities.