Joy Street

This is one of the first proper adult novels that I ever read. I don’t mean that it was “all about sex” but it was about a marriage, and was a serious examination of a woman’s life. I read it as a teenager and was so naive at the time that some of it took me by surprise. It was only when I was a little older that I understood some subtle hints.. Frances Parkinson Keyes was an American novelist who wrote many stories about historical subjects, some are set in the South and others in New England. Her novel, Joy Street, is set in Boston just before and during WWII. She was from the American upper class and her husband was involved in politics. Joy Street is the story of a young woman of the Boston elite, Emily Thayer, who at 22 marries Roger Field, a young lawyer of good social position but poor. Roger is a quiet shy man, who is devoted to his wife, and she has more charm and vivacity than him. His new law firm is experimenting with taking on staff from different social and ethnic backgrounds, such as Jews and Irish and Italian Catholics. Some of Emily’s family disapprove of this and dislike immigrants.. She is happy to help her new husband to welcome these new people into Boston society, but within a short time, she finds herself attracted to David Salomont, the womanising Jewish lawyer who has joined the firm. He tries to pursue her and she is tempted by him. But Emily is not a woman to give way to adultery, lightly. She tries to remove herself from too close contact with David, but her cousin, Priscilla, a new debutante, who is staying with her, makes it harder for her to do this.