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  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. She knew about upper class and political life. 
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. 
However 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 on the social scene, makes it harder for her to do this.  Roger’s well-meant admiration for his fellow lawyer also interferes, at first.  Priscilla, a young shy woman, falls in love with David, and makes it clear that she wishes to marry him.   
Emily feels some jealousy, but she dedicates herself to her marriage.   She also tries to help the two other new lawyers, Brian Collins from an Irish family and Pellegrino De Lucca, from an Italian family.  Brian’s family though Catholic and hence “not accepted” socially are well to do and involved in politics.
With war looming, Roger tries to join the army but is rejected on health grounds.  Brian, David and Pellegrino all join up.  David turns down Priscilla’s proposal of marriage and leaves Boston for Washington, to join the Judge Advocate’s office, prior to active service.  Emily throws herself into war work and looking after Roger who is also working hard, in his law firm and doing something for the war effort.
The story ends just after the war finishes, and it is a bit of a surprise ending.  It intrigued me as a kid because it wasn’t quite a happy ending but not a sad one. I won’t mention the ending, because I hope my readers will go out there and read the book! What was also wonderful about it, as a writer, was how well Keyes could write about adulterous love without allowing her heroine to end up in bed with the wrong man, nor to describe sex explicitly. In writing nowadays, the writer has greater freedom to talk about many subjects and to use explicit and crude language... But it is quite possible to write about love of all sorts, without this.   I like some novels and stories where the sex is raw, but I keep coming back to Joy Street….