This summer, one of my most trusted reader friends read an ARC of The World of Tomorrow, and said it was one of the best books she’d read in years. I’m so glad she did, because otherwise, I don’t think it would have been on my radar. And as I might have mentioned once or twice already, I. loved. this. book. Thanks, Deb!
I’m not scared off by big (500+ page) books, but I always assume they’ll be overwritten. But no, this one is just long because there is so much going on, and so many people, and you want to know what’s going to happen to every single one of these characters, because they are all your favorites. My personal favorite was Lilly, and also Francis, and Michael, and Peggy, and Cronin of course, and Hooper, and Rosemary, and okay fine, if I really have to pick just one, it’s Martin. Three reasons: One, he and Rosemary are the most charming literary couple ever, like, even when she slapped him it was charming. “A full-handed, Bette Davis slap, just like in the pictures.”
Two, because when Rosemary takes up writing, Martin calls her “Rosie the writer-er,” and that killed me.
Three, I just have a soft spot for Irish men named Martin living in New York in the 1930s. A very specific soft spot.
