=======
I have studied the first four chapters of Eleanor Bergstein's novel Advancing Paul Newman. Before I continue into Chapter Five, I will continue to recapitulate here what I have learned so far.
=======
After Kitsy and Ila return from Europe to the USA in the late summer of 1959, they keep in touch. Kitsy resumes living with her parents, and Ila moves into a New York City apartment that she shares with a roommate.
Ila soon is hired to work as an assistant to a casting director. On behalf of Hollywood movie studios, he recruits and evaluates actors in New York City.
Ila meets and falls in love with a man named Loren, who grew up in an artistic family and lived much of his life in Europe. Loren soon loses her virginity to Loren (she had not lost it to the German photographer). Loren intends to marry Ila, and she is happy. Her manic-depressive swings -- which previously had happened without apparent cause -- seem to end. Instead, her emotions became linked reasonably to her relationship with Loren.
All at once the free-floating feelings that Ila had detested ... that Ila knew counted for nothing because they were attached to nothing were attached to Loren. Depression rage happiness were no longer in limbo -- there was something to pin them on.Loren would like to become an architect, but he does not want to study the prerequisites, such as drafting. He seems to be unemployed, living off his mother's money. For a while, Loren intends to marry Ila, but eventually he becomes disenchanted with her. In the summer of 1960, Loren breaks up with Kitsy and moves to Europe.
======
Living with her parents, Kitsy begins to work in the publishing business in New York. She is promoted within the business, but slowly.
Meanwhile, Kitsy becomes romantically involved with a lawyer named Arthur Cornell. He is several years older than her, successful and very knowledgeable about history, current affairs and most other subjects. In that regard, Kitsy feels inferior to Arthur.
They met each other accidentally while waiting in line for a Broadway play. He asked her whether she wanted "to make waves" in her life, and she replied that she indeed wanted to make waves through her writing.
Arthur is looking for a wife who will give birth and raise his children. He figures that she can stay at home and write in her spare time while being a housewife. Kitsy eventually wants to get married and raise children -- but not now. Arthur is an attractive and nice man, but she cannot fall in love with him.
However, Kitsy becomes involved with Arthur romantically and sexually, because she likes her lifestyle with him -- visiting museums, watching Broadway plays, socializing with his sophisticated friends.
Arthur advises Kitsy to apply for a job at a local public television station. She is hired. She looks forward to a possible opportunity to get involved in developing public-television adaptations of literature classics.
======
During 1960, Kitsy becomes involved in the political campaign of Adlai Stevenson, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. In July 1960, however, Stevenson drops out of the race and asks his supporters to support John Kennedy. Arthur had supported Kennedy from the beginning of the campaign and expects to get a good job in the Federal Government if Kennedy wins the election.
Ila has been dumped by Loren, and Ila's roommate is away, going through a long medical treatment. In the autumn of 1960, Ila invites Kitsy to move into her half-empty apartment. Kitsy agrees, but for unexplained reasons cannot move into the apartment until January 1961.
Although Kitsy intends to break up with Arthur, she stays with him into January 1961. Her 23rd birthday is on January 20, 1961, the day of President Kennedy's inauguration, and Arthur takes her from New York to Washington DC to attend an inauguration ball. Kitsy enjoys the experience. She greatly admires Jacqueline Kennedy and is thrilled to see her briefly at the ball.
======
After January 20, 1961, Kitsy moves in with Ila. Kitsy gripes to Ila about Arthur, and Ila gripes to Kitsy about Loren, even though he moved away to Europe several months ago.
Although Kitsy is living with Ila, she is trying to figure out a good excuse to break up with Arthur. She cannot simply tell him that she does not want to quit her public-television career in order to become a house, even if she might be able to write at home.
Kitsy tells herself that Arthur lacks appreciation for the arts. He is interested only in history, politics and law.
Arthur is applying for various lawyer jobs in the new Kennedy Administration. If he does get such a job, then he will move to Washington DC and will expect Kity to relocate with him.
When Kitsy is in Arthur's apartment, she snoops through his stuff and finds his correspondence with his previous girlfriend. When Arthur had been attending Yale Law School, he had become romantically involved with Rosalind, a student at Vassar women's college. Gradually Arthur had become less attentive toward Rosalind, however, and so Rosalind had dumped him and married another man. On her honeymoon, Rosalind had regretted her decision and had begun writing letters to Arthur asking him to take her back.
Kitsy is glad to discover this situation. Now she will be able to dump Arthur, advising him to go back to Rosalind, his true love.
======
That is the situation at the end of the novel's Chapter Four.
======
I will continue my analysis of the novel in my Part 6.
======
No comments:
Post a Comment