Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Tight White Collar

3.57 of 5 stars 3.57 · rating details · 30 ratings · 5 reviews

These people live in Cooper Station, U.S.A.

Anthony Cooper, nephew of the owners of Cooper's Mills, who found his summer's amusement in a violent and illicit love affair...

Chris Pappas, the guy from the wrong side of the tracks, who might lose his job for a "mistake" he made in high school...

Doris Palmer,wife of a wealthy manufacturer, who used her money to hide a secret th...more

Paperback, 318 pages

Published June 7th 1962 by Dell (first published 1960)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 55)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Jul 26, 2011 Myles rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lgbt, genretical

Grace Metalious had huge success with Peyton Place at a heavy cost to her personal life. I was interested to see what her first non-Peyton Place set novel was like. How would she respond to her critics, if at all, would she change her formula?

I was reluctant to believe in the 'TORRID NEW NOVEL' marketing on the front and back cover, but if you read the back-cover copy you get an idea of what to expect. It's about a small New England town whose citizens hide dark secrets and seamy pasts behind co...more Grace Metalious had huge success with Peyton Place at a heavy cost to her personal life. I was interested to see what her first non-Peyton Place set novel was like. How would she respond to her critics, if at all, would she change her formula?

I was reluctant to believe in the 'TORRID NEW NOVEL' marketing on the front and back cover, but if you read the back-cover copy you get an idea of what to expect. It's about a small New England town whose citizens hide dark secrets and seamy pasts behind conventional façades.

Metalious essentially rewrites Peyton Place but cuts out the children and adds a few more taboo subjects on top of the usual premarital and adulterous fornication. With those subjects I feel that Metalious was trying to be supportive or progressive, but I got a couple of winces out of it. And, calling all purple prose fans, she opens The Tight White Collar with three pages of the most atrocious, unnecessary, vivid descriptions of the change of seasons before it abruptly ends and the action starts.

One couple, the scion of the famed Coopers and his southern belle wife, are weighed down and divided by the birth of a daughter with down syndrome (still referred to as a mongoloid here). What happened? (view spoiler) The horror and shame those two had to live through!

Ahem, speaking of horror and shame, the other issue is brought up in typically subtle back-cover-copy: "David Strong, the music teacher, who hated women but couldn't admit--even to himself--the reason why...." What? HATES WOMEN? Why? Some of the reviewer reports praise (or hyperbolize) Metalious' use of the Kinsey Reports in this book. David Strong is described as hopelessly effeminate, fussy, neat and painting his nails with clear polish as well as the son of an overbearing mother and an abusive father (who he was attracted to, of course). Even for 1961 this is not exactly progressive. And, of course, (view spoiler).

Still though, I give Metalious a lot of credit for at least trying to broaden her scope when she could have coasted along and written dozens of cookie-cutter 'torrid' suburban romances. For all the faults I have and could point out she was sympathetic and supportive, mostly in the right way, towards these 'afflicted' people.

Metalious was a talented writer, in between sex scenes and scandalous pasts she does a good job of describing the tensions between couples and the pettiness of small-town politics. The books pages fly by. The big problem with this book was that it didn't have a strong enough core character to tie all of the townspeople together.(less)

like · see review

Jun 03, 2012 Pam rated it 2 of 5 stars

Pretty interesting_the title..tried to figure out how it tied into this work.Finally,mentioned half way through book.I was disappointed in the work_guess "Peyton Place" was so good.I think this was a reflection of her own life_the alcoholic part_that consumed her after the fame of PP.Im sure at the time it was published in 1960_it was kind of taboo with the sexual scenes described to the "T".Today_people wouldn't even care.Fast read.

like · see review

Jun 04, 2012 Andrea Buschman rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was a print version of a soap opera. I kept waiting for some major event to occur to shake up the town, but it was a series of vignettes woven together without any major catastrophes.

like · see review

May 12, 2011 Betty rated it 4 of 5 stars

a comment about the book here

like · see review

Jul 03, 2010 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was such a steamy, dramatic, delicious, scandalous surprise! I am inspired to re-read peyton place!

like · see review

May 21, 2013 Linda marked it as to-read

May 13, 2013 Ines marked it as to-read

Shelves: pulp-fantasy-sci-fi

Apr 19, 2013 Caffrin marked it as to-read

Apr 18, 2013 Yvonne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: women-s-fiction

Apr 07, 2013 Sylvia marked it as to-read

Apr 07, 2013 Kinga marked it as to-read

Mar 27, 2013 Maraskywalkeriii added it

Feb 04, 2013 Sally Skogheim marked it as to-read

Jan 16, 2013 Elfolletto marked it as to-read

Dec 30, 2012 Suki rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oct 11, 2012 Sharron Kennard marked it as to-read

Shelves: m-to-read

Sep 30, 2012 Erin marked it as to-read

Sep 08, 2012 Kenny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grace-metalious

Sep 01, 2012 April rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oct 15, 2012 Lisa Iodice rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jul 24, 2012 Claire Baskett marked it as to-read

Jun 04, 2012 Maggie rated it 4 of 5 stars

May 10, 2012 Bonnie Morse marked it as to-read

May 06, 2012 Ninni marked it as to-read

May 03, 2012 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 10, 2012 Anais marked it as to-read

Mar 11, 2012 Marci rated it 3 of 5 stars

Feb 21, 2012 Nicola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Feb 20, 2012 Danielle marked it as to-read

Feb 18, 2012 Bipin rated it 5 of 5 stars

« previous 1 2 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

Popular Shelves

to-read

22 shelves

fiction

3 shelves

pulp-fantasy-sci-fi

1 shelf

women-s-fiction

1 shelf

m-to-read

1 shelf

grace-metalious

1 shelf

tbr-general

1 shelf

1960-1969

1 shelf

genretical

1 shelf

glbt

1 shelf

About Grace Metalious

Grace Metalious was an American author, best known for the controversial novel Peyton Place.

She was born into poverty and a broken home as Marie Grace de Repentigny in the mill town of Manchester, New Hampshire. Blessed with the gift of imagination, she was driven to write from an early age. After graduating from Manchester High School Central, she married George Metalious in 1943, became a housew...more Grace Metalious was an American author, best known for the controversial novel Peyton Place.

She was born into poverty and a broken home as Marie Grace de Repentigny in the mill town of Manchester, New Hampshire. Blessed with the gift of imagination, she was driven to write from an early age. After graduating from Manchester High School Central, she married George Metalious in 1943, became a housewife and mother, lived in near squalor — and continued to write.

With one child, the couple moved to Durham, New Hampshire, where George attended the University of New Hampshire. In Durham, Grace Metalious began writing seriously, neglecting her house and her three children. When George graduated, he took a position as principal at a school in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.

At the age of 30, she began work in the fall of 1954 on a manuscript with the working title The Tree and the Blossom. By the spring of 1955, she had finished a first draft. However, she and her husband regarded The Tree and the Blossom as an unwieldy title and decided to give the town a name which could be the book's title. They first considered Potter Place (the name of a real community near Andover, New Hampshire). Realizing their town should have a fictional name, they looked through an atlas and found Payton (the name of a real town in Texas). They combined this with Place and changed the "a" to an "e". Thus, Peyton Place was born.

Metalious — the "Pandora in bluejeans" — was said by some to be a dreadful writer and a purveyor of filth, but her most famous book changed the publishing industry forever. With regard to her success, she said, "If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste," and as to the frankness of her work, she stated, "Even Tom Sawyer had a girlfriend, and to talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass."

Her other novels, all of which sold well but never achieved the same success as her first, were Return to Peyton Place (1959), The Tight White Collar (1961) and No Adam in Eden (1963).

Metalious died of alcoholism on February 25, 1964. "If I had to do it over again," she once remarked, "it would be easier to be poor. Before I was successful, I was as happy as anyone gets." She is buried in Smith Meeting House Cemetery in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.(less)

More about Grace Metalious...

Books by Grace Metalious

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Tight White C...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

Quotes from The Tight White Collar

“...and often Lisa thought bitterly of the ideas she had held on "college life" before coming to Denton, ideas and images culled from a hundred magazine stories and as many movies. Where were the convertibles, the secret bottles of liquor, the gay young men and their wild girl friends?” — 1 person liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Tight White Collar
avg rating	preview: The Tight White Collar Goodreads rating: 3.57 (30 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1628204.The_Tight_White_Collar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1279992456l/1628204.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1628204.The_Tight_White_Collar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Tight White Collar by Grace Metalious[/url]

The Tight White Collar

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Popular Shelves

About Grace Metalious

Books by Grace Metalious

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About The Tight White C...

Quotes from The Tight White Collar

new topic
Discuss This Book