The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955)

by Sloan Wilson

American soldiers came home from World War II to expectations about the good life: a decent-paying job, a wife and kids, a nice house. As The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit opens eight years after the war's end, Army veteran Tom Rath's wife, Betsy, wants a better house for their three-child family. Tom obliges her by taking a higher-paying job in Manhattan as an assistant to a television executive who wants to launch a campaign for mental health services.

But Tom doesn't fit comfortably in the mold of the gray flannel everyman. The work is inane, yet he's expected to be available at all hours. Making matters worse, the elevator operator at the new office building knows about Tom's wartime secret. He served in the Army with Tom and married a relative of the Italian woman with whom Tom had an affair and a child. Tom never told Betsy about the affair, or about killing 17 men in combat, including his best friend.

Tom becomes disillusioned and apathetic but eventually resolves his problems through honesty. His boss understands that Tom wants to work normal hours and arranges another position for him. Betsy supports Tom's decision to send child support to the mother and son in Italy. Critics have faulted the ending for unrealistically easy solutions, but author Sloan Wilson said the book was largely autobiographical, so perhaps things really did happen as he wrote them. The ending aside, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is a page-turning description of a dilemma that's as urgent today as a half-century ago and now has a name: work-life balance.

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