Home

Completed	21 July 2007
Title	Gentleman's Agreement
Author	Laura Z. Hobson
Published	1947
Quote	"Never try to dismay a man, he thought in the taxi, about anything in the world the morning after hes made love to his girl. Kathys face came back, hesitant, a touch surprised. A primitive sense of achievement and self-satisfaction filled him. Shed thought hed be a goddam intellectual about everything!"
Review	This is the story of a widower, Phil Green, a WW2 veteran who moves from California to New York to take a writer position at Smiths Weekly Magazine. Phil brings with him to New York his mother and his 8-year-old kid, Tom. Phil's first writing assignment is to create a series of articles on anti-Semitism. So, he poses as a Jew for a few weeks, then he writes about it. He tells everyone he's Jewish and concludes thus: "Through the drinks and the easy talking, one recurring notion sent bursts of feeling secretly through Phil. It had never been a Jewish problem, for the Jews alone could never solve it. It was a nonsectarian problem. And because of the simple thing of majority, it was mostly a Christian problem. Hed always known that. But now he was a different sort of Christian. Now he was one of the Christians able and ready to act. On whatever front the thing showed itself. It was a big difference. The difference." I recently had the good fortune to see the 1947 movie, Gentleman's Agreement, while I was house-sitting for a friend. (I don't have a TV.) How funny that I should just finish the book and there run across the movie. The movie stars the great Gregory Peck. What's interesting is how the movie so very closely follows the book, most times almost verbatim. This wasn't my favorite book, but I'm glad I ran across it.

For next book review, please click here.