Not Our Kind
Summary (from the publisher): With echoes of The Rules of Civility and The Boston Girl, a compelling and thought-provoking novel set in postwar New York City, about two women—one Jewish, one a WASP—and the wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting
One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor.
Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her work, even if she must use the name “Moss” to enter the Bellamys’ restricted doorman building each morning, and feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem with her being Jewish.
Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate through their lives.
Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how much our pasts can and should define our futures.
One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a private tutor.
Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her work, even if she must use the name “Moss” to enter the Bellamys’ restricted doorman building each morning, and feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem with her being Jewish.
Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate through their lives.
Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how much our pasts can and should define our futures.
Review: I received an uncorrected proof copy of this novel from HarperCollins.
A chance encounter, thanks to a minor traffic accident, brings together Eleanor, a teacher and recent college graduate and Patricia, a somewhat unhappily married woman whose thirteen-year-old daughter Margaux is still at home recovering from polio and is in need of a tutor. Although Eleanor feels out of place in the Bellamy's Park Avenue social set, in part because she must disguise her Jewish background from the rest of the apartment building, she quickly bonds with Margaux and grows to love her job as tutor. When Eleanor is invited to join the family at their vacation home in Connecticut, she quickly forms an attraction to Patricia's brother Tom. However, the happy place Eleanor holds within the household is altered when lines are crossed one evening, an event that causes deep fractures for both the Bellamys and Eleanor.
Told in alternating perspectives, this novel focuses on Eleanor and Patricia. In another time or setting, the two could likely have become close friends but their social status, relationship as employer and employee, and differing religions ultimately prevent a true friendship. For Eleanor, this novel functions as a coming of age story as Eleanor navigates the difficult territory of life after college and figuring out who she is, how she wants to spend her life, and who she wants to spend it with. Eleanor also finds herself questioning how being Jewish makes her stand out and her discomfort when asked to conceal her background by shortening her last name to Moss. Similarly, she questions the traditional path of marriage and children she has always assumed she would take. Likewise, Patricia, although later in life, is questioning the path her life has taken, most notably her marriage. Patricia also questions her place socially; if she didn't have her role as wife, where does she fit in in her world?
This novel beautifully explores the way two women feel restricted within their world and constrained by the limited roles they are able to fill in the world of New York in 1947. The novel was situated in an interesting jointure of history and uses that to its advantage, including such historical details as the polio epidemic, the art world of New York City, and the still sustainable business of ladies hats. In particular, I enjoyed Eleanor's thoughtful consideration of what it means to be a Jew in the post World War II world. While not overly attached to her religious beliefs, she feels a sense of obligation to those who died in the war to not always take the easy route of hiding her Jewishness in professional settings. While some characters did come across as overly type cast, including Patricia's largely distasteful husband, the story was vividly told and was a unique story of an unlikely relationship of two women in New York from very different worlds.
Stars: 4
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