Group Read, June 2021: The Glimpses of the Moon

Our June group read is The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton. Please join in the read and post any comments on this thread.

Started reading it.
Has a modern touch to it, had to double check to that was indeed written 100(!) years ago.

>2 elik82: I just started it too and agree, it feels more modern than I'm used to with Wharton.

I am loving this book, it was just exactly what I was in the mood for. It reminds me a lot of the screwball comedies that Hollywood produced in the 1930s.

I have now completed my read of The Glimpses of the Moon and I loved reading this lighter Edith Wharton. She continues to be one of my favorite authors.

I also found this book a lot of fun -- more light-hearted than her better-known novels. I was going to say it is an interesting look at the writer she would later become, but it is a mid-career novel, published much later then House of Mirth and just after Age of Innocence.

I have to admit that I wish there was more deviousness enjoyment of others' wealth and a slower, longer build to the moral backsliding. The middle section where the two are apart and willfully miscommunicating was a bit of a drag. But I did appreciate the happy ending!

I can't decide how we are supposed to feel about the two main characters. They're just sponges. But incredibly delightful sponges. I'm only 50 pages in so perhaps this will become clearer.

>6 ELiz_M: felt similarly about the drag of the middle section. Was the first Whaton novel I read.

Did anybody else end up feeling really sorry for Streff and Coral? I want to read another book about the two of them! Coral is smart -- she went to Bryn Mawr, which in 1920 was a big deal. And she's struggling, there at the end, to figure out who she is and how she can do something that matters, and her options have been made so limited. And Streff -- he may not have the good looks and high-mindedness of Nick, but he's kind, and patient. They are both good characters who Wharton allows her hero and heroine to treat badly.

Or did others read this differently?

>9 annamorphic: Right! Perhaps Streff and Coral could have been a good match...

>9 annamorphic: Absolutely. In romantic comedies the "other" lover interest is very often so obviously wrong for the hero/heroine that it's only a matter of realizing his/her true interest, but I don't think that is the case here. Streff really loves Suzy and he is not nearly as superficial as the rest of the crowd. Coral is intelligent and independent - perhaps the only truely independent character in the novel - but those qualities are just not seen as attractive by her possible suitors.

I'm not sure Streff and Coral would be a good match for eachother, but I do feel sad for them, because they are esentially pursuing the same dream as Lucy and Nick.

Another question: Will Nick and Suzy actually be happy? Suzy seems changed after taking care of the Fulmer children, but Nick seems like the same person. He never seemed as attached to the easy living of the rich, but he doesn't seem keen on having a "provide for the family job" either.