The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, by Sloan Wilson, is a novel about the American search for purpose in world dominated by business. Tom and Betsy Rath share a struggle to find contentment in their hectic and material culture while a slew of other characters fight essentially the same battle, but struggle in it for different reasons. In the end, it is a story of taking responsibility for one's own life. The book was largely autobiographical, drawing on Wilson's experiences as assistant director of the US national citizen commission for the public schools.
The novel was made into a movie in 1956, starring Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones as Tom and Betsy Rath, with Frederick March and Lee J. Cobb in supporting roles (March plays Tom Rath's boss, a character based on Roy Larsen, Wilson's boss at Time, Inc.).
The movie and book have become hugely popular, and the book continues to appear in the references of sociologists to America's discontented businessman. In 2002, the book was returned to print in a new edition with a foreward by author Jonathan Franzen.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit II appeared in 1984 - by the time of the sequel, Tom and Betsy have divorced and Tom is employed in the Kennedy administration.
[edit] Plot Summary
Tom and Betsy Rath live in a rundown house in western Connecticut in about 1955. They have three TV-addicted kids (two girls and boy) and have money problems. Tom is about 35 years old, a Harvard graduate, and barely survived as an Army officer during World War II. He fought in both Europe and the Pacific combat theaters, and is sometimes haunted by flashback memories. He seeks to increase his income by interviewing for a job at a New York-based television network. His stay-at-home wife urges him to support his family better. He lands a public relations job working in a staff position for the top man at the network. The top man is a very wealthy nice guy surrounded by politicking yes-men. He is to speak before a group of physicians to propose establishment of improved mental health services and offering to put network time toward that end. The problem Tom has to solve is how the top network man can best present the proposal to the learned doctors so that the doctors will rise in unison after the speech and appoint the network top man to spearhead the campaign. Tom is hired on a six-month probationary basis. He reports to a humorless game-player who rejects five different drafts of the speech created by Tom and ends up substituting one of his own. Eventually the top network guy and Tom agree that the approach approved so far is all wrong in that it casts the network guy as an ignoramus who is in no way qualified to spearhead the campaign. Tom's approach is much more sensible: offer to run political ads in favor of the establishment of government-funded mental health programs. It would be an offer the doctors could not refuse. Sidebar plots include an attempt by the caretaker of Tom's grandmother fraudulently to inherit her property (where Tom and his family live) in place of Tom; the estrangement of the top network man from his wife and daughter on account of his constant workaholic absence; and Tom's earlier adulterous behavior and his out-of-wedlock baby boy who was conceived in Italy during the war at a time of great stress, who pops up as an issue in a letter from the boy's Italian mother seeking monetary support for the boy at a most inconvenient time. Betsy goes berserk on hearing of this secret, but eventually calms down. In the end, seeing the example of how his boss's marriage and family life had been ruined by overwork, Tom turns down a high-pressure traveling position in order to work normal hours and spend quality time with his family.
