Growing Up Rich

by Anne Bernays

The story of a Jewish American girl growing up in New York and Massachusetts.

343 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1975

About the author

Anne Bernays is a novelist and writing teacher. Her articles and essays have appeared in numerous major publications, among them The Nation, The New York Times, Town & Country, and Sports Illustrated. She lives in Cambridge and Truro, Massachusetts with her husband, Justin Kaplan.

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sarah Stern, 13, lives in the gilded world of the richest Jewish circles in Manhattan, circa 1947. She admires her beautiful mother but can't get along with her. Her younger half-brother Roger is a brat. Her stepfather Freddie is an amiable nonentity. Her real father, an alcoholic WASP, in on the verge of remarrying a much younger woman. Sarah is convinced she's miserable. And then things get worse. When her mother and Freddie die in a plane crash, Sarah and Roger are sent to live with Freddie's business partner and intellectual svengali, Sam London. The Londons live in Brookline, near Boston, and are middle-class, liberal, intellectual and proud of their Jewish heritage. In other words : the exact opposite of how Sarah grew up. Sarah and Roger need to adapt to their new living circumstances while accepting the fact that their immense trust funds inspire curiosity and envy in their new school mates.

That is the story in a nutshell. As a matter of fact, there isn't much of a story. The book is more like a string of vignettes pulled together along the leitmotiv of "the rich are different from the rest". The most enjoyable parts of the book were the descriptions of glamorous parties and the gracious lifestyle of the very rich. Inbetween the author gives us episodes of Sarah's teen angst. Many of them are formulaic, though, like her attraction to the high school bad-boy who humiliates her in a story published in the school magazine, or her love-hate relationship with food.

The reason why I give this book only 2 stars is because, although it's well-written in many ways, it lacks internal consistency and coherence. People are introduced and then vanish again (Sarah's maternal grandfather, the family lawyer). Judy London is alternative pictured as a plodding housewife and as someone with an active intellectual life. Sam London is described as cold and impossible to love, but apart from his tendency to spend the evenings in his study, there is really no evidence that he is anything but a good husband and father (by 50s standards). The only thing that the author wants the readers to know about Sarah's half-brother Roger is that he is a spoiled brat. Finally, the book ends abruptly with a few paragraphs saying how (after a runaway attempt by Roger) Sam magically became a warmer person and that Sarah started looking up to Judy like a mother figure. It sounded to me like the author needed to bring her book to an end, didn't know how, and came up with a version of "and they all lived happily ever after."

[China · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually ordered this a few months ago hoping it was a memoir (only to find that damn "A Novel" on its cover); Bernays being the daughter of PR king Edward Bernays, and having written some wonderfully filthy bits about Anatole Broyard in Back Then (with husband Justin Kaplan). Anyway. Fiction. It is apparently a well-crafted story, as it reads quickly and clearly. Follows the story of a poor little rich girl in New York whose parents are killed and who winds up a half-orphan with humble, unashamed Jewish guardians in (gasp!) Massachusetts. All sorts of refreshingly blunt accounts of things like masturbating and being fat and hating her Jewishness included. But the ending is horribly feel-good and predictable given the potential circumstances. Would almost rather it have been another memoir.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read about this book in The Official Preppy Handbook, because it describes vintage (1940s) WASP culture in New York City. I loved seeing the preppy lifestyle through the eyes of a Jewish girl, because her insider/outsider perspective provided more depth than would have been possible from a complete insider. The drama was interesting, but I was most interested in the details of the houses, clothes, decor, and food of that era.

[Lou Cove · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satisfying portrait of mid century class divides and assimilation as seen through the eyes of a super smart, slyly snarky teenage girl whose life just went kaplooie.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this but I am not certain I understood it -- by which I mean not the book, but why the author wrote this particular book. It's a very readable depiction of a girl growing up in Jewish wealth & luxury in New York whose life is eventually changed by tragedy, and then she is growing up in middle-class Jewish comfort, which she slowly adapts to over time. I really enjoyed the depiction of worlds & times not my own; my grandparents were working-class Russian Jewish in their youth, and definitely upper-middle-class by the end of their lives, but they died when I was still young, so there was a personal touch here for me about these different ways of being Jewish and how the different groups (German vs. Russian) saw each other in the wake of the holocaust, all sorts of interesting things about passing as WASP vs. not even trying to pass, etc etc etc. But... why this book? There doesn't have to be a reason, really, but I came away from it feeling almost like I had read memoir, I felt like I had insight into the life of another person, but with less weight to it because it was fictional and shaped and yet I can't figure out to what end it was shaped.

I will gladly read more Bernays if I can find it; her fiction is a little hard to find.

[K. Fox (Cahill) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow a book about luxury, and the sudden violent change to middle class, manages to be dull, morbid, pretty boring. I wanted to like this one but it didn’t resonate with me, there wasn’t really a single ounce of joy or pleasure in the story (given the circumstances not a huge surprise but still made it a drudge to read), dialogue didn’t hold up or stand out in any kind particular way. Three stars for beautifully written scenery and details about food, which I always love to read.

[Veronica Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

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