Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
Summary:
SUMMER AT TIFFANY is a memoir of the summer of 1945, when Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend Marty travelled from the Kappa House at the University of Iowa to New York City, hoping to land sales jobs at Lord and Taylor or Sak’s Fifth Avenue. Turned away from the top department stores, they made their way to 57th Street where refusing to be deterred, Marty lead Marjorie into the legendary Tiffany store, and somehow these best friends talked their way into positions as pages–the first women to ever work on the sales floor. Their salary left them penniless and pondering the “Wheaties and Celery Diet,” but their diamond filled day–job was the envy of other romantic minded girls who had flocked to New York City that steamy June. Their dream was made complete by their Manhattan apartment–conveniently close to the dashing Navy Midshipmen at Columbia University, and their college friends summering on Long Island.
My Review:
I don’t know about you – but when I think memoir I think of some of the more depressing stories I’ve read; stories of abuse and abandonment. I don’t know when Memoir became synonymous with those subjects in my head but thank goodness Marjorie Hart was there this week to show me how different memoirs can be.
This book was one of the most pleasant, most nostalgic memoirs I’ve read. It almost felt like fiction in spots so fantastic were the names and the places being seen.
Tiffany has always been a magical name to me, I mean, what girl doesn’t love at least looking at sparkling diamonds or watching Audrey Hepburn on the screen as she emerges from a taxi in front of the famous store. I loved getting an “inside” look at what was like in the 40′s during wartime for these girls who made a place for women working in the established store.
Although there wasn’t as much store talk as I had hoped there would be, I still wasn’t disappointed. Marjorie has some amazing memories and brought goosebumps to my arms more than once as she described the scenes she was seeing in New York at the time of the Japanese surrender.
Overall the book was a very light, perfect summer memoir to read and I highly recommend it if you are looking for that perfect story to read on the beach.
Just finishing the Book Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart. I loved it. Nice easy reading. I would recomment it to anyone. It is our Book Discussion for July 1 at our neighborhood Mid-Continent Library here in Mid America
I enjoyed it quite a bit =)