I wish I could say the same for The Road Taken but at least for me I found it a sad book which maybe I needed to be in a better frame of mind to appreciate. The premise of the novel is interesting. We follow the life of Rose Smith born on Jan 1 1900 and the book ends in 1999 with Rose about to turn one-hundred. It's a journey through the turbulent and often tragic 20th century.
The Road Taken is also about Rose's three daughters Peggy, Joan and Ginger who will face choices their mother's generation never faced. We follow the story of Rose's brother Hugh. As a young boy he knows he has feelings for other boys that he can't share with anyone. But by the time The Road Taken ends Hugh, age 80 with his partner Teddy, is going on protest marches to raise money for AIDS research.
Hugh and his sister Rose remain close all their lives possibly because they have an optimistic spirit and they change with the times. This is also true of Rose's youngest daughter Ginger a brilliant and kind-hearted young woman who is stricken with polio at age 16. It leaves her in a wheelchair but Ginger is determined to graduate from medical school and go into research and through hard work and determination that's exactly what she does.
Ginger's older sisters, Peggy and Joan, have a harder time managing the 20th century and they are constantly at war with each other. They are too different and their relationship is permanently broken by a tragic accident that happens halfway through the novel. Peggy is never able to completely forgive Joan for this accident and the best they will ever achieve is a cold peace.
And as we get deeper into the 20th century we see the enormous changes in society but also time passing by so quickly. The Road Taken really brings this home in the story of Celia, Rose's stepmother. Celia is a minor character in the novel, a good woman but rather direct in her advise which can exasperate her family. The family also marvels at Celia's tremendous energy, going on cruises, volunteering, lunch with her girlfriends, never stopping.
And then 3/4 of the way through The Road Taken there is a heartbreaking passage where Celia notices that when she calls her friends to chat and make lunch plans her friends are becoming somewhat annoyed. Their response is "Celia you just called me ten minutes ago". Celia is puzzled but not yet alarmed. She makes a joke about getting old. The friends laugh as well but Celia begins keeping a list of her friends names on a notepad near the phone crossing out each name after she calls that person so that she will remember not to call them ten minutes later. I wish I could say that this solves the issue for Celia but when you have seen this illness up close you know it only gets worse.
But on the plus side The Road Taken ends with Rose in pretty good health getting ready to celebrate her 100th birthday with her extended family. And so to sum up I probably wasn't in the right mood to enjoy The Road Taken. It got a little too real for me with Celia's story. But I definitely recommend Five Women and The Best of Everything and I plan to read one or two more novels by Rona Jaffe going forward.
I've never read any of Jaffe's books, mainly I think because they always seem very feminist from the little bit I picked up about them back then. I never gave her books a chance, and that's my fault, not hers. I let her get pigeonholed in my mind as a writer best ignored. The novels didn't seem right for me at the time, but they appear to be much more complex and "literary" than I imagined them to be. I know that the subplot about Celia is what you liked least about the novel, but somehow that segment makes it all seem much more of a "serious" book to me. I need to take a look at her back catalogue.
ReplyDeleteHi Sam, I would recommend looking at Rona Jaffe's back catalogue. Many of the plots focus on women friends, classmates, career girls etc. Her classic is The Best of Everything and it was written in 1958 so it predates feminism which makes it kind of interesting in that Rona was out there on her own and for anyone who watched the TV series Mad Men it deals with all the same issues.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm not even sure where my impression of her came from. She seems to have been most popular when I was a kid, so I'm probably still carrying a childhood impression of her in my mind. I'll definitely take a look.
DeleteHi Sam, I know what you mean. We get impressions of writers I know I do but the only way to know for sure is to read something by the author but it's also important that we get the right book by the author that speaks to us. For example I have never read Donna Tartt but if I do I am going with The Secret History rather than her subsequent books which I hear are not easy to get through.
DeleteSomehow, I don't have a good impression on Rona Jaffe either and I don't know why. Maybe some of the covers at the time just looked like the content would be too shallow.
ReplyDeleteThis book does seem like it could be too much of a downer for me. But I should give something by her a chance.
Hi Tracy, I think the best book of Rona Jaffe's is her classic The Best of Everthyng and if you liked the show Madmen or career girls in the 1950's written in 1958 then Best of Everything is the way to go.
ReplyDeleteI've never read any of Rona Jaffe's books either. I like the look of The Room-mating Season. Poor Celia, her story does sound sad and depressing. Getting older is so not fun. I'm glad Rose doesn't have that same kind of problem. My grandmother was born in 1900 and lived to be 101, and she had pretty good health right up until the end. But I don't want to live that long!
ReplyDeleteHi Lark, Glad to hear your grandmother lived a long life and in good health. I think living into our 80's and 90's is good provided that we are in good health. But then again living into one's 90's even if we are healthy is kind of scary. Agree getting older is not fun. I may check out the Room Mating Season.
DeleteI don't know much about this author ... but she seems to cover a lot of years & ground. So is Best of Everything from 1958 ... before it's time in championing women's issues? That's admirable.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan, it's been awhile since I read The Best of Everything published 1958. It's a novel about young career women who want different things and how they make out in NYC. It's definitely ahead of its time and think Sex In The City meets Mad Men but with a more serious tone.
Delete