Balconeers discussion
Choosing our next novel/film
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Rebecca sounds fun, too--I just got a lovely trashy pulp edition from the 50s. :)




Books that Hollywood ruined would be a great topic. Pride and Prejudice with Keira Skinnybones (shudder).
Are we getting close to a start date for reading The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit? We need to do something to celebrate the Mad Men/Jon Hamm Golden Globes wins! (And I note that AMC is starting reruns of the season one, for those of you who may have missed it.)

I rewatched the first episode myself and holy moly the subtext there! This series is definitely rich enough to watch multiple times.
I checked it out of my library yesterday and found a sequel TMitGFS II and something called What Shall We Wear to This Party?: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Twenty Years Before & After. I'd say Sloan Wilson milked this pretty well!
I checked it out of my library yesterday and found a sequel TMitGFS II and something called What Shall We Wear to This Party?: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Twenty Years Before & After. I'd say Sloan Wilson milked this pretty well!

Now I can watch the movie.
Having watched only one episode of Mad Men, I don't see a big connection beyond the army experience. Don works in a different field and is more like Ralph in the book, a brilliant overachiever who lives a separate life from his family in the suburbs.
I am glad you recommended it it, and I have added the series to my DVR schedule!
Well, I found TMitGFS to be rather a slender reed (read? ha!). Maybe it's because the film was faithful to the book, but it all seemed rather pedestrian to me. I seem to recall in the movie that Rath doesn't know he fathered a child until the elevator guy tells him - maybe because one can't imagine somebody as upright as Peck abandoning a lover to fate, like Book-Rath does.
Not sure I'll invest the time in the sequel, since the original was somewhat disappointing.
Now rewatching MAD MEN - that's a good investment of time! I can't wait for season 1 on DVD. And the writers are back at work on season 2 after a side deal was reached. Yay!
Not sure I'll invest the time in the sequel, since the original was somewhat disappointing.
Now rewatching MAD MEN - that's a good investment of time! I can't wait for season 1 on DVD. And the writers are back at work on season 2 after a side deal was reached. Yay!

Like Stephanie, I found the ending interesting...the mental health connection and the denial of PTSD. There were times I reflected on my father while reading it. He wasn't a man in a grey flannel suit. He was a blue collar guy who never finished high school. I wondered how he felt about those guys and whether he envied them.
Anyway - I'm glad I read it. But it didn't give me a lot of new insight.
I think this is a good example of a novel that struck a chord because of the time in which it was published, but it now seems to lack depth.
I'm reading _The Group_ right now - I hadn't realized I'd never read that one. McCarthy seems to be channeling Clare Boothe Luce with extra helpings of depressive situations.
I'm reading _The Group_ right now - I hadn't realized I'd never read that one. McCarthy seems to be channeling Clare Boothe Luce with extra helpings of depressive situations.
So, suggestions?