Books: Spruce Street Boy

(See Cover)

POINT OF No RETURN (559 pp.)—John P. Marquand— Little, Brown ($3.50).

Charley Gray closed the door of his $30,000 house in Sycamore Park, Conn, and eased himself into the Buick beside his wife. On this rainy spring morning in 1947, as she did every weekday morning, Nancy was driving him to catch the 8:30 train to his Fifth Avenue bank job in midtown Manhattan. To Charley, this always seemed the friendliest time of the day. He noticed how Nancy's hair curled below the edges of her green hat and he realized gratefully that he could talk to her about the children, or the household budget, and not be nervous about her driving.

This morning, Nancy broke the spell. There was a vice presidency open at Charley's bank and everyone knew it lay between Charley and Roger Blakesley. The strain of waiting for President Anthony Burton to make up his mind had made Nancy taut. "Why don't you ask Burton what the score is?" she asked. "Aren't you tired of waiting?"

For some reason, Charley Gray became mildly irritated. "The little woman kissing her husband good-by," he mocked. "Everything depends on this moment. He must get the big job or Junior can't go to boarding school. And what about the payments on the new car? Goodby, darling, and don't come back to me without being vice president of the trust company."

"Don't say that," she said.

"Why not?" Charley asked.

"Don't say it," Nancy said, her voice louder, "because maybe you're right."

The story of Charley Gray is the story of millions of decent, middle-class U.S. citizens who are doing well, have a fire in their heels to do still better, and in their thoughtful moments suffer a fugitive feeling of discontentment from start to finish. Charley and Nancy have been to college; they have a house and a car, even a membership in Sycamore Park's second-best country club. All they want at the moment (besides the vice-presidency) is a newer car, membership in the Hawthorn Hill Club, prep school for the children and, later, when they can manage it, a rather better house.

But for Charley there is an intangible want that none of these things fulfills, even when it can be bought and paid for. Somehow he feels that life is slapping him around, and it makes him dissatisfied and a little bitter. What is missing?

Life Without Props. For almost two years Novelist John Phillips Marquand has been burrowing at the roots of Charley Gray's discontent. Next week, in his latest and best novel, Point of No Return, he gives his readers no pat answer. But, as a good novelist should, he gives them a shrewd, revealing picture of a broad segment of U.S. society.

The Charley Grays burn themselves out in the race to pass the Blakesleys and creep up on the Burtons; then find themselves at the end with no spiritual props to make life bearable. The question Author Marquand's book raises is: "Are the rewards of all your efforts worth the effort?" But Charley Gray himself may be too busy even to hear the issue stated. Like an aircraft pilot who has passed his own point of no return—the point on a long flight where it takes more gas to go back than to go on to his destination—Charley has to keep going.