I liked the movie but found the book rather coarse. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3109567.html

In the novel, Hobson is able to take us into the heads of Phil and Kathy, and Phil is a lot more nuanced on the page than on the screen. It's a case where telling rather than showing is the way to go; the novel makes it clear that Phil and Kathy's relationship is physical, and likewise that Dave and Anne have an affair. It feels more fair to Kathy and makes Phil more interesting than the screenplay does. Some of my criticisms still stand - there is no obvious black character in the book (the editor, Minify, employs a maid called Berta who is described as "husky", but that's not the same as "dusky"). The Holocaust is referenced in passing, but the emphasis is still on anti-Semitism as experienced by the East Coast upper classes. But the story came alive for me on the page as it had not done on the screen. It was originally serialised in Cosmopolitan. ( )

This is one of those books I meant to get to for years, decades even, but it never seemed to be quite the right time. Recently though, I found it in one of those book deals newsletters (Of which I read about a bazillion every day. No, really!) and decided that it was time to dive in.

It's odd how a book can seem both dated as well as shockingly timely. This is clearly a mid-century book, right down to the vocabulary. And yet the themes are so completely contemporary -- anti-semitism, shades of prejudice, racism -- that there were times I had to stop reading because I would begin to feel sick that we've progressed so little since the post-WWII era.

It's the story of a reporter who is assigned a series of articles on anti-semitism in contemporary America, and who goes undercover as a Jew to get an authentic feel for his subject. He doesn't seem to do much research, rather he wings it by announcing to people that he's Jewish and waiting to see how they react. Responses range from surprise to withdrawal, to not-so-subtle rejection; all unsurprising responses from strangers and even acquaintances. But what he finds is that with only a couple of exceptions, friends, family, and even his fiancee show a range of discomfort with what he's doing. He discovers that even Jews are prejudiced against certain perceived "types," and that his best friend, a Jew, has spent years never showing how angry he is about the systemic prejudice he and his family and friends have suffered.

Whatever technical problems I found in this book, they were mitigated by both the message, and the fact that the characters, though flawed, were adults, not dewy-eyed kids with a mission, or schoolyard bullies. They had real lives, loves, problems, fell in and out of love, and had sex lives that were their own business. They were capable of noble behavior and base behavior all within the scope of this story. They sometimes just reacted, but they also took time to think about things.

In the end, Hobson's most important message is this: When good people are afraid to rock the boat, nothing ever gets accomplished. When they're afraid to call their friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and even family members on prejudice, either overt or covert, they become part of the problem. ( )

SO. VERY. PROFOUND. ( )

325. Gentleman's Agreement A Novel, by Laura Z. Hobson (read 26 Apr 1947) On Apr 25, 1947, I said:"Tonight started Gentlemen's Agreement, a story of a man who pretends to be a Jew in order to write on anti-Semitism. Poor start, and other things are not so good, but this theme is good and well-handled, and it faintly reminds me of "See What I Mean?" which I read Apr 16, 1944." On Apr 28 I said: "Finished 'Gentlemen's Agreement' which had a good idea." ( )