Away from Home

by Rona Jaffe

Three young and successful couples have come to the exotic shores of Rio, Brazil, to live and work in the late 50s. The new city offers them an escape—a private paradise where the pleasures and customs of a vibrant culture can ease the loneliness, pain, and stress from their former American lifestyles. But as they become swept up in the colorful madness of Carnival, their expatriate dreams quickly begin to disintegrate, and secrets from their past begin to resurface. Now, so far away from home and in a foreign land, they have become strangers to one another and have to find themselves once again. Sophisticated and expertly crafted, Away from Home is an engrossing read about rediscovering one’s identity in unfamiliar cities and circumstances.

Genres: Fiction

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Rona Jaffe established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program in 1995. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $850,000 to a total of 92 women.

Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rona Jaffe was well-known as a columnist for Cosmopolitan in the 1960’s and published sixteen books, beginning with her most well-known novel, The Best of Everything (1958), which was an instant hit, and became a movie with Joan Crawford. Away From Home, which follows three expatriate couples working in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, was her second novel.

The novel opens with a Christmas Eve party. It is a character-driven novel and the first couple introduced is Helen and Bert Sinclair. “They were a good-looking couple, he very dark, she fair, both young, with the look of settled Americans in a foreign country: healthy, sleek, privileged, proud, and vulnerable. Helen wonders if everything in life has to be so ordered, eating on schedule, sleeping on schedule, making love on schedule. In Rio, they attend parties, talk to the maids, make menus, lists, and social schedules. “Is that all life has turned into for us,” she wonders.

Margie and Neil Davidow are the second couple introduced in the novel. “She was a smallish, dark girl, with an excellent figure, and an even more spectacular clothes sense, and an incredible neatness and feminity of person that passed for beauty.” They had been married for five years. Neil was 31. Margie was 25 and was Helen’s best friend. Outwardly, Margie has it all, but after a few drinks at the party, confesses: :Sometimes, like this evening before we got here, I wish I were dead.” On the surface, they were the perfect charming couple, but in the bedroom, Margie wanted to scream when Neil touched her. He is frustrated and wonders if she is really interested in women or if she would be happier with someone else. He had been the perfect pick for an upper East Side girl “except for a wildly romantic passionate love.”

Mildred and Phil Burns were giving the party and were known as Mil and Phil. Mil, who had once before the husband and three kids, had been Iowa Corn Queen, but she had arrived in Rio, “protestingly, hating the apartment, hating the climate, hating the cockroaches, hating the telephone system, hating the tan bath water.” Brazil isn’t as pretty as it looks, Mil confides.

The three couples soon find that Brazil is a whole different world from the temptations of Carnival to the fact that all married men seem to have a mistress on the side and an apartment to meet her in. They have different ways of navigating these treacherous waters with some falling to temptation, perhaps for the better, and some running away from the open sex buffets and finding their way back to their partners. It is a character-driven novel with very little in the way of crime or capers other than the various infidelities and a threat to kill. Nevertheless, it is a novel which captures an era.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a novel published in 1960. As women's fiction, it was way ahead of its time with its open approach towards sex and sexuality during the remnants of the Eisenhower era. Set in Rio, it follows the lives of several women, mostly expatriates married to men who have been sent by their companies to work in Brazil. The women, by virtue of these circumstances, are well-to-do, but there are plenty of references to the extreme poverty of the lower classes in contrast to the wealthy. It is interesting to see how attitudes have changed – or not – more than half a century later. Many Americans still think they have some kind of holier-than-thou privilege that allows them to be critical and cynical about every place and every people who are "the other". We see so much of this now in the age of Trump... but not necessarily by those who are of wealthier, more comfortable circumstances.

The central female characters in this book are receptive to change, and perceptive enough to embrace it, so that is reassuring. The plot wrapped up with what we would perceive as some conventionality through our 2017 lens, but getting there was an interesting ride.

[Noha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Puedo decir varias cosas interesantes de este libro. La primera vez que lo ví se encontraba dentro de una caja con pertenencias de mi abuela, ya sus páginas se encontraban gastadas y la portada no era muy nítida así que no lo leí en ese instante.

No obstante, un día decidí que era el momento. Cuando lo empecé me costó seguirle el hilo, después me fue gustando y luego me decepcionó.

Lo único que me sorprendió del libro era la forma en que la escritora describía el calor de Brasil, al leer esos fragmentos ¡Yo sentía que me asaba! Literalmente sentía el calor que experimentaban los peraonajes.

Me agradaban unos personajes pero me estresaba después con su forma de actuar. Unos eran muy machistas otros muy débiles e indiferentes si le lastiman. Y cuando tocaron el tema del engaño y la forma de perdonarlo como si no tuviese importancia alguna... ¡Yo no podía! El libro se me hizo pesado e interminable... Y me decepcionó bastante tanto la evolución de la historia como la de sus personajes.

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

😟

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Rona Jaffe's writing style. I'm looking forward to finding more of her books. Her characters are real and the setting (Brazil) transported me to another place and a different era. Very fun read.

[portia leuba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some more light reading from an author I somehow became semi-addicted to. This time the setting is Central America and several couple's reaction to the location and local customs. Reads very quickly.