Book Review: Summer at Tiffany
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a sweet book. More essay like than an actual novel, which is fine. The writing isn't the best; it's not bad but it's not amazing either.
But I can overlook that to read about the first female runners to work at Tiffany. One of my dreams is to visit the real Tiffany in New York and be able to purchase something there. It sounds silly, I don't care. So this story grabbed my eye and I delved right into it. I liked the sweetness of the story - Marjorie - being the more innocent and less street smart of the two girls - has stars in her eyes the moment they move to NY and get their jobs at Tiffany. I think, in some way, I would be the same way. Jaw dropped, eyes sparkling in wonder. I loved the details of the clothing, the girls experiences working at Tiffany and their outings to night clubs and with dates.
Not a book for everybody. I did put it down halfway through because I was a little bit bored. But I finished the rest pretty quickly when I picked it back up. It's a sweet tale, nothing scandalous or crazy or sensational. There is a moment that Marjorie talks about the plane crashing into the Empire State Building and how scary that was. I thought that was an interesting link between the past and the more recent past; except it wasn't an attack of terrorism, but weather. Anyway, she also touches on the subject of World War II and how it affected her own family. But that was as personal as the story got or as deep or moving.
It's more about Tiffany and wearing pretty clothes and dancing and the one time some guy came in and asked her to try on earring after earring after earring.
From Goodreads: 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.
Their workdays found the girls dazzled by the likes of honeymooners Judy Garland and Vincent Minnelli, Marlene Dietrich in her USO uniform, and legendary playboy Jimmy Donohue. They delivered and modelled priceless jewels, nearly lost precious pearls, and encountered Old Man Tiffany himself during a rare visit. In between getting lost in Harlem , witnessing the Eisenhower Parade, VJ Day in Times Square, and mingling with the Cafe Society-Marjorie Hart fell in love, learned lessons and made decisions that would impact the rest of her life.
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