One More Slip

by Marion Von Adlerstein

If you loved the THE FREUDIAN SLIP, you'll love ONE MORE SLIP. David Jones, Dior and Marimekko ... Sixties Sydney was swingingly stylish!

It is the sixties and times are changing. Hemlines are getting shorter, stockings are being discarded and women are doing it for themselves.

At the advertising agency of Bofinger, Adams, Rawson & Keane, three women Desi, Bea and Isabel are making their way in a man's world. For them jingles and catchphrases are easy having a life outside the office is so much harder.

Adulterous affairs, pining for an overseas love and being used to exact revenge on a former fianc e all take their toll on these three fashionable women. But the changing social landscape means there are surprises in store and that love can be found in the most unexpected places.

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 26, 2013

About the author

Born in Sydney, Marion von Adlerstein worked as an advertising copywriter in Melbourne, London and New York in the fifties and sixties. Between 1976 and 1998 she held several posts with Vogue Australia publications, including Travel Director. During those years Marion wrote about many subjects, including fashion, beauty and interiors. She is the author of THE PASSIONATE SHOPPER, THE PENGUIN BOOK OF ETIQUETTE and THE FREUDIAN SLIP.

Reviews

[Gee · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up One More Slip and commenced reading unaware it was a sequel book to The Freudian Slip, but being a fan of Mad Men and keen to read a story set in Sydney in the 1960s, I pressed on regardless. I didn't feel it necessary to have read the first to make the most of the second.

One More Slip is about a cast of very fashionable young women and men working mainly in advertising and other associated professions during that tumultuous decade. Centred mainly around four female characters - Isabel, Desi, Bea and Stella - we see friendships, love affairs and careers started, grown and in some cases ended, taking a toll on some egos more than others. This is all set against a backdrop of great change in the era, with the younger characters clearly signalling the 60s zeitgeist, whilst the older characters, despite some in step with the times, are mainly hanging onto old certainties, taking the easy way by pretending the youngsters are following the way things have always been done.

While I found One More Slip a generally agreeable read, by the time I reached the end I felt it had missed its potential to tell a good story. The fairly large ensemble of characters are perfect 60s cut outs and as such, I found them two dimensional and a bit stereotypical. Perhaps I missed something by reading the first book but I feel they should have been more rounded out and we could have learnt more about them yet by the time we reached the end, I felt quite unsatisfied as to the level of engagement I felt.

This lack of character depth wasn't helped by short, fairly fast paced chapters which had you jumping to the next scene before you really managed to settle into the previous one. Another element I found puzzling...no extremely irritating...was the constant insertion of luxury brand names and irrelevant geographical references, as though the writer was desperate to constantly remind us that these young glamorous types were fabulously stylish and living in Sydney. I think we got it!

Such a shame. This had everything going for it, but overall, I rated it an OK read and not a necessarily bad way to pass the time. But with such a setting, such a time and a city almost literally bursting at the seams to grow up, the potential here was missed to explore the times and the life of perhaps one central character in much more depth.