Umbrella Steps

by Julie Gilbert

Very good in very good dust jacket. Hardcover first edition - New Random House,, (1972). Hardcover first edition -. Very good in very good dust jacket. . First printing. The author's first novel, a coming of age story - and a love story - set in New York City. 181 pp.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[W.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this apparently forgotten novel. It's very reminiscent of Salinger, and especially my favorite Salinger book (F&Z). Plotwise, it's Lolita x 2. Two young girls seduce each other's fathers. But it's not played for salaciousness. Its neither cutesy nor lurid, despite the subject matter. I think the author was twenty-five when she wrote this. But at times she reminds me of Saul Bellow in here! (Don't worry--she doesn't stay in that mode.) She later went on to become a distinguished biographer. This book might be forgotten, but it's pretty good. I have a seventies fetish and she captures the seventies perfectly. It's really about young women moving into the place occupied by formerly young women. And the wariness that sort of situation demands isn't lost--not even on the youngest characters in here. It's a strange little novel.

[Melissa Macdonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was one of my parents' book-of-the-month-club books and I still remember the cover photo. Might even still have the book jacket, actually. Anyway, no idea how old I was when I read it, but I remember loving Prudence's voice and I can still retrieve blocks of this book from memory at will. I guess if I had daughters instead of sons, I'd probably be cringing now (and the men in question would probably be in jail!), but I really did relate to Prudence's 17-going-on-35 mentality! Not so much regarding older men as just the way she observed the people and events around her and her dry, but sometimes loopy, wit.

[Lizzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I swear I read this novel in the Ladies Home Journal, which used to run novels in each issue. I was a teenager, it was published in 1972, and boy is it of its era. Narrated by Prudence Goodwin, a 17 year old Manhattan schoolgirl whose best friend Lolly is having a fling with Pru’s father. That’s okay, Lolly’s father, a widower, has always thought Pru would be a looker when she grows up and they get together. Prudence’s mother is conveniently sent to an insane asylum. The main plot is about how the girls’ friendship suffers because of the jealousy about who Daddy loves the most. I’m making it sound awful but Prudence is a great character, witty and funny, and she and Nate have such a great connection. I unashamedly adore it because it was such a part of my formation. I really wish there was a sequel because I love these characters so much and want to know what happens to them.
The author is the great niece of Edna Ferber (a novelist whose books I devoured in high school and college) and her other books are non fiction about Ferber and others of that period.