Faith Baldwin was one of the most successful writers of light fiction of the 20th century. Her books often had a feminist base as strong-willed career women juggled work and family. One of the highest paid writers in the 1930's, she continued to write 60 novels, including You Can't Escape in 1943.
The small town of Benfield, New Hampshire, is filled with talk of the London bombings and Germany invading Rumania (sic), as New York lawyer Tony Dennison visits the office of his lawyer friend, Timothy Wheaton. Wheaton's young daughter Linda is his legal secretary who plans to become a lawyer herself, if it weren't for her impending marriage. Tony visits the family and meets her handsome fiancé Rix and her maid-of-honor Peg, so he knows some of the history when Linda unexpectedly arrives in New York looking for a job - for Rix has shocked the family by eloping with Peg on the eve of his marriage. Linda now lives in a clubhouse for young career gals, and begins work at Tony's Wall Street law firm - quickly moving up the ranks to executive secretary and taking law classes at night.
Bad enough they have the same friends, and she runs into Rix and Peg at the same parties - and Linda feels obligated to forgive them - but she quickly finds Peg crying on her shoulder, when Rix takes up with gold digging socialite Nelda, whom no one likes. As Linda's career begins to take off she must balance the law, a romance with a self-centered beau, and Peg's emotional crisis when she overdoses on pills.
As you would expect, it all comes together in the end, and it's an enjoyable read.
Baldwin does a good job of featuring the young career women of the Big City of the 1940's, making it more than just a woman's novel.
Read my other reviews for Faith Baldwin:
1943 / Hardcover/ 246 pages
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