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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Paperback – October 23, 2002

by Sloan Wilson (Author), Jonathan Franzen (Introduction)

38 customer reviews

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Universally acclaimed when first published in 1955, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit captured the mood of a generation. Its title — like Catch-22 and Fahrenheit 451 — has become a part of America's cultural vocabulary. Tom Rath doesn't want anything extraordinary out of life: just a decent home, enough money to support his family, and a career that won't crush his spirit. After returning from World War II, he takes a PR job at a television network. It is inane, dehumanizing work. But when a series of personal crises force him to reexamine his priorities — and take responsibility for his past — he is finally moved to carve out an identity for himself. This is Sloan Wilson's searing indictment of a society that had just begun to lose touch with its citizens. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is a classic of American literature and the basis of the award-winning film starring Gregory Peck. "A consequential novel." — Saturday Review

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Product Details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press; 4 edition (October 23, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568582463
ISBN-13: 978-1568582467
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though it's cited in nearly every book and article about the culture of the 1950s, few readers under 65 know Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit firsthand. The 1955 bestseller is being reissued with a new introduction by Jonathan Franzen-and, indeed, the story of disappointed Westport, Conn., strivers Tom and Betsy Rath anticipates the novels of suburban anomie by Franzen and his contemporaries. Dreaming of a bigger house for his wife and three kids, WWII veteran Tom leaves his job with an arts foundation to be a well-paid public relations executive at the United Broadcasting Corporation. But corporate ladder climbing and consumer rewards leave him miserable. Though his sentimental conclusion now seems dated, Wilson's portrait of the martini-soaked malcontents is sharp, memorable and still resonant today.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The writing is vigorous, unvarnished, tartly observant; its overhanging disquietude isn't dated - if anything, it's deepened." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

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Customer Reviews

(38)

4.5 out of 5 stars

5 star		22
4 star		13
3 star		2
2 star		1
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"It will be interesting to see what happens").

J. Alexander

I read this book over the holidays in just a couple of days.

Missouri Reader

It's a classic of American literature and a must read.

Michael G.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful

A pleasant find

By Thomas Stamper VINE VOICE on June 17, 2004

Format: Paperback

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.

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51 of 54 people found the following review helpful

Solid, purposeful, successful

By Robert H. Nunnally Jr. on September 8, 2000

Format: Paperback

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.

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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful

Wally Cleaver, he ain't.

By M. G Watson TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on February 28, 2008

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

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.Read more ›

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

The Soul of a Hero Reborn

By J. Alexander on February 7, 2007

Format: Paperback

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.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

A world forever lost

Unlike some of the reviewers, I have seen the movie but have not read the book, but have always known about it, being slightly older than the Baby Boomers. Read more

Published 12 days ago by VictrolaJazz

Excellent

As an Iraq vet this story resonates strongly with me 60 years later. It is an excellent choice even today.

Published 1 month ago by Doug

A hit sleeper

A wonderful book, should be on reading lists for high school seniors. Finally, a hopeful ending in a 20th century novel. But it's not hokey.
The movie is excellent, too. Read more

Published 2 months ago by J in New York

More than it seems.

As the author himself remarks in his afterword, this book's place, in the popular imagination, is as an indictment of the conformity of suburban life, but that's not really what... Read more

Published 2 months ago by R Kanakia

Not the life of a typical office worker

The new observation I can add to other reviews is that the protagonist's work was quite different from the stereotype I had come to believe from hearing about this novel for so... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Andrew D. Oram

A provocative and enjoyable read

I just read this book for the first time, even though the book was first published in 1955. Which, I might add, is right around the year of my birth - to give you an idea of my... Read more

Published 11 months ago by fab 50-something

Good Entertainment, It focuses on success in life, in contrast to...

Although "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" is definitely reflective of the 1950's and the advertising/public relations business throughout much of the 1960's, its theme of... Read more

Published 15 months ago by The Old Pirate

Classic novel of the 1950's

Sloan Wilson's the Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is the quintessential novel of 1950's America. The protagonist, Tom Rath, is more discontented than filled with wrath. Read more

Published 17 months ago by John Martin

Almost like reading a history book

I loved the portrayal of the post-war establishment of corporate america and it's drone requirements. Read more

Published 18 months ago by Remotemark

one of the best

I bought this book because I heard it was one of the best books ever written in English, and a very good insight into life in American in the 50s. It did not disappoint.

Published 20 months ago by Player Mom

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