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Rating: 
Summary: Auchincloss Monologues Chronicle Our Lives
Review: Louis Auchincloss' lateset collection of short stories is a welcome addition to his considerable body of work. Every new contribution helps define Auchincloss as a major force in American literature.In "Manhattan Monologues," Auchincloss views the seminal events of our last century as they affect and are affceted by characters from his world: upper east side, Hamptons, Mount Desert Isalnd, New England boarding schools. His characters -- on the surface people of welath, power and priviledge -- slog through their lives just as we common folks do, with much the same results. As he so often has done in the past, Auchincloss has held up a mirror which helps us better understand the world in which we live.
Rating:
Summary: Auchincloss Monologues Chronicle Our Lives
Review: Louis Auchincloss' lateset collection of short stories is a welcome addition to his considerable body of work. Every new contribution helps define Auchincloss as a major force in American literature. In "Manhattan Monologues," Auchincloss views the seminal events of our last century as they affect and are affceted by characters from his world: upper east side, Hamptons, Mount Desert Isalnd, New England boarding schools. His characters -- on the surface people of welath, power and priviledge -- slog through their lives just as we common folks do, with much the same results. As he so often has done in the past, Auchincloss has held up a mirror which helps us better understand the world in which we live.
Rating: 
Summary: PENNED WITH GRACE AND PERCEPTION
Review: One of America's most respected authors, Louis Auchincloss has just given us a gift - his 57th book, Manhattan Monologues. As one expects from this celebrated chronicler of upper-class society, the prose is precise and telling. He reveals rather than explains, writing with grace and perception. This collection of ten stories opens with "All That May Become A Man," the chronicle of a son who cannot meet the expectations of his daring father, a former Rough Rider who considered Teddy Roosevelt both "god and friend." Agnes Seward is the heroine and narrator of "The Heiress." By way of explanation we learn that in her day it was accepted "that any ambitious and impecunious young man who elected to enter an unremunerative career......would do well to avail himself of a dowry." She did have a dowry, albeit a modest one compared to her wealthier relatives. Agnes sometimes wondered if it were not possible to be loved for herself alone rather than the financial stability she might bring to a marriage. In "Collaboration," a revelation of a couple's differing relationships with the Nazis, our narrator is an only son who finds joy in lonely rambles through the marshland of his family's summer home. It is there that he meets Mr. Slocum, a like-minded gentleman who "...was the first adult who had ever listened to me." Their friendship will deepen throughout the years. Each story is a mini masterpiece impeccably crafted and imaginatively told.
- Gail Cooke
Rating:
Summary: PENNED WITH GRACE AND PERCEPTION
Review: One of America's most respected authors, Louis Auchincloss has just given us a gift - his 57th book, Manhattan Monologues. As one expects from this celebrated chronicler of upper-class society, the prose is precise and telling. He reveals rather than explains, writing with grace and perception. This collection of ten stories opens with "All That May Become A Man," the chronicle of a son who cannot meet the expectations of his daring father, a former Rough Rider who considered Teddy Roosevelt both "god and friend." Agnes Seward is the heroine and narrator of "The Heiress." By way of explanation we learn that in her day it was accepted "that any ambitious and impecunious young man who elected to enter an unremunerative career......would do well to avail himself of a dowry." She did have a dowry, albeit a modest one compared to her wealthier relatives. Agnes sometimes wondered if it were not possible to be loved for herself alone rather than the financial stability she might bring to a marriage. In "Collaboration," a revelation of a couple's differing relationships with the Nazis, our narrator is an only son who finds joy in lonely rambles through the marshland of his family's summer home. It is there that he meets Mr. Slocum, a like-minded gentleman who "...was the first adult who had ever listened to me." Their friendship will deepen throughout the years. Each story is a mini masterpiece impeccably crafted and imaginatively told.
- Gail Cooke
Rating: 
Summary: All the characters are good at playing bridge.
Review: This is the type of book where all the characters are very good at playing bridge, and the men are mostly either successful lawyers and bankers or unsuccessful businessmen; the women don't work. It is kind of fun to read, and while I cannot take it very seriously, Auchincloss is deeply interested in the characters and society he writes about, and to a great extent he draws the reader into this world. Auchincloss also does very well with the short story form, in that few of his stories come across as mere "trifles". The story about a son who cannot measure up to his father's expectations, and a father who does his best to love his son, is the most meaningful of the stories.
Rating:
Summary: All the characters are good at playing bridge.
Review: This is the type of book where all the characters are very good at playing bridge, and the men are mostly either successful lawyers and bankers or unsuccessful businessmen; the women don't work. It is kind of fun to read, and while I cannot take it very seriously, Auchincloss is deeply interested in the characters and society he writes about, and to a great extent he draws the reader into this world. Auchincloss also does very well with the short story form, in that few of his stories come across as mere "trifles". The story about a son who cannot measure up to his father's expectations, and a father who does his best to love his son, is the most meaningful of the stories.
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