Point of No Return

There are few books published like this any more and I wonder why. One reason could be that people do not read like they once did and this is why serious fiction concerns itself with either life in the university (hardly the stomping ground for everyman figures) and alternately freaks and geeks. Since the death of John Cheever, there have been few books that address the trials and tribulations of the middle and upper middle class reader. One does not find sensational crimes or magic realism in works by John Marquand. While there certainly is a place for these sorts of things, it is a pity that Marquand's influence waned with his death in the 1960s. This book concerns themes that probably are more universal than what one finds in contemporary literature. A man is seeking to get a promotion in his firm and he is in competition with another person for it. During the novel we really get "the story of his life, using the "flashback technique" that Marquand made famous in all of his best books. Along the way there is regret and a curiosity about what he might lost by not pursuing a different path. Not exactly earth shattering events, but things that grownups experience everyday. One wonders if the reason that people do not read as they once did is due to television and other assorted distraction or for the simple reason that the books that are published are so very far removed from common experiences. Marquand's fall since the 1960s has been a sad one. He was at one time, one the best-selling authors in the US. It is a tragedy that more of his works are not in print, this one in particular. If ever an author desereved "The Library of America" treatment it is he.

I discovered "Point of No Return" as a teenager. It sat on a shelf in my father's library and sounded like an interesting title. It is now an old friend.I've reread this subtle novel many times over the years and find, remarkably, that with each reading I get a different sense of Marquand's ultimate message. In fact, the whole story seems to take on new meaning over time, a delightful characteristic of every great book.Marquand is a wonderful author. I am currently savoring his "So Little Time" and recommend all of his work. "Point of No Return," however, will always be my favorite.

I have read this book perhaps a half dozen times and enjoyed it thoroughly each time. I think what captures me the most is Charlie's incredible discipline, intelligence, and ability to always do the right thing in all situations. I love the insiders view of the stock market rise and fall of the late twenties. I love the scene of small town New England, and I love the inside workings and politics of banking. Charlie's father, John Gray, is a totally captivating character, as well - a personality type that most of us have known at one time or another- brilliant and tragic, a classic "wish-fulfillment" person who doesn't know when to stop his wild fling with the stock market. Charlie's development as a person is in definite response to his father's personality type, in fact, Charlie's development is in reponse to all things about his environment. I know others have termed this book "tedious at times", but I find nothing tedious about it. The character studies are worth their weight in gold. As I've said, I've read this book a half dozen times, and I'll probably read it a half dozen more in my lifetime.

Although not a short or easy work, Point of No Return is a novel worth one's time. On one level it is a genial satire of the New York banking scene in 1946 as World War II veteran Charlie Gray sweats out the coming shakeout in his genteel, white-shoe bank: who will get the promotion to vice president, him or his flashier rival Roger? Marquand's eye for detail is very acute, whether it's the layout of a desk blotter or a psychological nuance like whether to first-name a superior.On another level Point of No Return is a midlife crisis, as Charlie has to return to the town of his childhood on a business trip and confront some demons from his young manhood, specifically the young lady from a wealthy family he was engaged to and almost married. Charlie is haunted by the anthropologist/sociologist who wrote a book called "Yankee Persepolis" about his little town and included his family in it, revealing his town to be as stratified and classbound in its way as any South Sea Island. So, past a certain point, does anyone have any choice on how far s/he can go in life? And has Charlie reached that "point of no return" by his forties? These are the issues that torment him. In Marquand's telling, Charlie is a very sympathetic character, and the patient reader will find this an engrossing tale. This is my first Marquand novel but it won't be my last.

Although he is no Hemingway, in Point of No Return John P. Marquand lends ample support to the claim that he deserves far more recognition--and readers--than he currently enjoys. Indeed, along with other Marquand titles like The Late George Apley, Wickford Point, and H. M. Pulham, Esquire one could argue that he authored at least four of the top 100 or so best novels by an American in the 20th Century.Perhaps what most distinguishes Point of No Return from the "Boston" novels for which Marquand is better known is that even after fifty years since publication the story has a remarkably contempory feel to it. In its main character, Charles Gray, the reader meets the kind of "organization man" that still populates middle management in corporate America. Essentially, oragnization men are those individuals (today, of course, including women) who subdue their native intelligence, integrity, and private desires in order to conform to an image that controls not only thier professional but personal lives as well. Indeed, the twarted rebellion and frustrated romance of Charles Gray, should have a remarkable resonance even to Baby Boomers, who now like the character are firmly into to middle age, mid-career, and deeply ambivalent about whether their superficial affluence has been worth the price.