read in my little room over 59th Street ( )

I liked this book, and hated it at the same time. I liked it for a good read, but here we have this "the man and the girl," again, or as I'd rather have it: "the boy and the woman." Disgusting double standard going on throughout the book. ( )

It seldom happens that I abandon a book and a challenge, but that is precisely what Marjorie Morningstar meant for me today. I found this book terribly dated and totally uninteresting. Perhaps if I forced myself past the 100 pages I generally consider my decision point I would find something redeeming in the novel, and finishing the novel would mean putting “done” to my Old and New Challenge instead of making it unfinishable.

Perhaps Marjorie’s life becomes more interesting when she gets out of her teenage/college days, but I will never know. I refuse to push myself to read 500 pages of this when I have so many books I am itching to get to. So, with apologies to all my friends who loved this book, it just wasn’t for me at all. What I found the most frustrating was that I kept comparing it to [b:Alice Adams|525818|Alice Adams|Booth Tarkington|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1259541358l/525818._SY75_.jpg|2197474], another teenager with huge ambitions, and with every point of comparison finding it wanting. ( )

This was disappointing in the end. I really enjoyed it, more than I expected, up until Marjorie decides to have an affair with Noel and subsequently gives up on a dramatic career. Her (and Wally's) conclusion, that she didn't have "it" and her passion for theater was just the meaningless enthusiasm of a talentless girl, seems unnecessarily dismissive. She could come to a much deeper conclusion about youthful dreams and adult values and priorities - Mike is even thrown in as a screaming opportunity to do so - but doesn't. Mike, maybe the most interesting person in the whole book, only ends up serving to knock the scales from Marjorie's eyes re: Noel, not redirect her purpose in a world that is becoming increasingly dangerous for people, especially like her. The last chapter, written from Wally's perspective, is particularly disappointing; Marjorie isn't given her own voice in looking back at fifteen years of her life. ( )

Marjorie was a middle-class, Jewish, seventeen year old who wanted to be an actress. We see her struggle for many years before finally giving up on that dream. The focus of the story is her first love, which was very destructive. It was difficult to like Marjorie as she was so naive, but doubly difficult to like anybody else in the novel. ( )