"Too realistic to be comfortable, too authentic to be rejected."
The Gilded Hearse is another paperback novel from Popular Library, featuring their usual eye-catching cover artwork. Never mind that it has nothing to do with the story inside.
Written in 1948 by Charles Gorham, it's about an editor in a New York publishing firm - his work and relationship challenges over twenty-four hours in September 1938 - the day of the Munich Conference, as refugees pour out of London and the Nazis move into Prague.
With a Sutton Place apartment, and an executive job with Hutchinson publishing, Eliot should have it made. Hutchinson is a low market publisher without cache, run by merchandising rather than editorials. A publicity man, Eliot writes the fast copy for press releases that can be used without much editing. He has ideas for presenting them a truly great novel, but it's easy to coast and not rock the money boat. Eliot has an on-going affair with socialite Laura Ingalls, he would leave his wife if he had the energy; his wife Mary also has a lacklustre fling, tired of his absence - if only he would pay attention to her. This is a 24 hour period of their lives, interspersed with radio speeches from Hitler and news bulletins from overseas where Great Britain, France and Italy meet over Germany entering Prague. Separated into sections titled Between Midnight and Morning, Between Breakfast and Lunch, Between Drinks, and From Cocktail Time to Dawn, the emphasis is on the drinking which Eliot and his business buddies continually do. Although everyone calls fellow co-worker Gerald Fatt a fairy and a fag under their breath, he is Eliot's best friend - Gerald is preparing a social business party that night for the Groton and Yale crowd. We meet each character at loose ends, this day as the world moves towards war.
This was another 1950's business man in emotional crisis novel, ripping the lid off what seems to be a conventional picture. Marriages have fallen apart and partners seek comfort elsewhere, there are rats and wolves at work and you can choose to run with them or sit on the sidelines. Either way it is an uncertain time. Eliot's relationship with Gerald Fatt was really interesting, his slight disdain for his fairy lifestyle but also a truly protective friendship. The chapters told from Gerald's point of view are unusual in 1950's fiction, as he creates his own way of life, abandoning efforts to disguise his tapering gestures and womanish walk.
Don't let the cover distract you, this is a serious novel about a career man at a crossroads. I have just purchased another novel by Charles Gorham, Martha Crane. This was well reviewed at the time and one of the better "Mad Men" style New York novels.
1948 / Paperback / 160 pages
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