Not Our Kind
Fiction
Harper
September 4, 2018
Hardcover
352
Free from publisher
With echoes of 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.
My review:
This historical fiction account of life in post WWII New York City was compelling and an engaging read. I fell in to the rhythm of the story of Eleanor, a Jewish woman who becomes a tutor for a young girl stricken with polio. Of course problems arise within the family who employs her, since she is "not our kind". Whether this is in reference to her religious background, or the fact that she is from a lower socio-economic class is up to the reader to decide, although my opinion is that it is a bit of both. The characters were at times a bit too cookie cutter and flat, but the story itself carried me easily past this. I thought the author did an excellent job of portraying life during these times, and was particularly interested in the hat shop owned by Eleanor's mother. I also loved that Eleanor was an educated woman who did not fall into the life plan of marriage and children that so many woman of that era did.
An excellent portrayal of life after the war where the different classes meet, and the usual prejudices are exposed. A very enjoyable story with several memorable characters.
