Faith Baldwin was one of the top female writers in the 1930's, writing fiction that mirrored the times for single women in the workforce. Skyscraper was a hit that follows a woman in banking, seeking romance but not at the cost of her career.
Although Baldwin sets the scene describing the myriad of people, the hustle and bustle of the big city, and many facets of life within a modern New York city building, the story quickly follows Lynn Harding at the Seacoast Bank. Her beau works in the company and her friend Jennie models in a fashion house upstairs. They are besotted with each other and spend a lot of time repeatedly loving, fighting, splitting up, and making up. Living first in an uptight woman's hotel, she moves in with Jennie despite her loose, fast life - there is also the seamy side as Jennie decides to be a kept woman to a wealthy married man. Lynn also meets a rich man from the top of society, who's lavish entertaining with the upper class who's who could be exciting enough to lure Lynn away. Scandal comes when one of them leaks insider bank information, causing potential disaster in a market crash.
This is 1931, and is a light and entertaining look at women's choices at the time. Lynn believes in her work and steadfastly chooses it over romance - her Aunt-like superior is also a career woman who long ago decided to remain single. Jennie represents the other path open to women - besides marriage and career - a mistress. It goes on a little too long at 319 pages, but interesting all the way.
This was made into a film starring Warren William and Maureen O'Sullivan called Skyscraper Souls in 1932, available to stream free online. It has all the same characters as the novel, but naturally changes the story by moving the main characters Lynn and Jennie into the background, and placing the bank president at the fore, turning it into a story about insider trading and stock markets.
Read my other reviews for Faith Baldwin:
1931 / Hardcover / 319 pages
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