Honorable Men

by Louis Auchincloss

In his newest novel Louis Auchincloss explores the circumstances under which America's "best and brightest," or at least richest and most socially secure, came to such grief over the moral issues of our time.Chip Benedict appeared to have the best of wealth, education, good looks, charm, and intelligence. Shortly before entering law school, he married Alida, a pale beauty with the slinky attractiveness of the day. But Alida had more than physical beauty. She had the cunning and talent to become the debutante of the year, thereby escaping the progressively threadbare world of tarnished elegance and unpaid bills to which she was born.Alida's life continued in a storybook fashion with her marriage to Chip, a seemingly perfect and certainly honorable man. Called to serve in World War II, he returned a hero, decorated for bravery at the Normandy landing. Following in his father's footsteps, he became chairman of the board of the prestigious Benedict Glass Company founded by his grandfather.And yet, with all of his gifts, Chip is haunted by dark guilt that drives him to excel, conform, and embrace a righteousness that he fails to perceive as hypocrisy. In business he becomes the perfect corporate forward-looking, ambitious, lauded in Fortune 2nd Forbes. Chip serves his community, supports the arts, and patriotically honors his government. But when it comes to choosing sides on the issue of Vietnam, he makes a decision that casts aside the deepest ties and loyalties of his life. How Chip Benedict comes to terms with himself and with those whose lives are entwined with his leads to an ending filled with irony that will keep the reader speculating long after the book is closed.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Family

268 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Louis Stanton Auchincloss was an American novelist, historian, and essayist.

Among Auchincloss's best-known books are the multi-generational sagas The House of Five Talents, Portrait in Brownstone, and East Side Story. Other well-known novels include The Rector of Justin, the tale of a renowned headmaster of a school like Groton trying to deal with changing times, and The Embezzler, a look at white-collar crime. Auchincloss is known for his closely observed portraits of old New York and New England society.

Reviews

[Thomasin Propson]

Bless their hearts, Alida and Chip are just not interesting enough to me to read any more than the first 50 pages. I actually had false hope when on page 41 Chip’s story took over from Alida’s (which was dull but normal kind of dull. Getting to know her, you know?) but then Chip is all sorts of weird rich boy with problems with his mother and women and so I say NO MORE of this. (1.5 stars because I like the setting itself, so not a totally wreck. This author has a following for a reason I suppose!)

[Harrison Glaze · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Frances · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horrible people and what was the bottom line? Men win even when they are horrible and women lose? Weird number of name overlaps. Alida, Gayley, Hooper.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been intrigued by him since I read an exchange of letters between him and Gore Vidal in the New Yorker some time ago. Generally regarded as a “novelist of manners”, as his fiction is generally set in a WASPy New York/New England/D.C. milieu. This one covered the life of a scion of a family business from the ’30s through the late ’60s. To us, the lead character is anything but what the title implies, but judging by the standards of his class he’s nothing else. Exceedingly well written, if ultimately slight.

[Phyllis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another from the New York lawyer/author with his knowledge of the upper class of New York. This time it's about a man who is congenial on the surface but has no sense of purpose, just coasting through life albeit using his many talents to amass even more money for his family, to whom he pays little attention. The author has a keen sense of men's and women's thoughts about themselves, as usual.