Room at the Top
Style: Good
Attitude: Objectionable
Age Range: Adult
Period: Mid 20th C
Synopsis:
Joe Lampton starts work as a clerk in a town hall just after the war. He starts going out with, and then sleeping with, Alice (the wife of friend) while courting Susan, a 19-year-old actress. Eventually he makes Susan pregnant and is forced by her father to marry her; when he breaks the news to Alice she despairs and dies in a drunken car crash for which he blames himself.
Notes:
The moral tone of this book starts low and goes no higher. The whole thing centres on Joe Lampton's desires for wealth and women.
Tuesday 1st January 2002