Turnabout

by Thorne Smith

Sally Willows envied her adman husban his glamorous work; Tim Willows felt Sally lived in ease and luxury while he was sweating to pay the bills. So an ill-tempered minor god, tired of their bickering, worked a modest miracle...

...and Sally Willows, no occupying her husband's body, experienced the full horrors of the Nationwide Advertising Agency, while Tim, now outwardly Sally, dealt with the amourous advances of a local Lothario.

It was a toss-up whether Sally/Tim's well-earned dismissal or Tim/Sally's bizarre attempt at murder was more spectacular - but both seemed insignificant when Tim found he was pregnant!

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Comedy, Classics, Satire, Gender

277 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

James Thorne Smith, Jr. was an American writer of humorous supernatural fantasy fiction under the byline Thorne Smith. He is best known today for the two Topper novels, comic fantasy fiction involving sex, much drinking and supernatural transformations. With racy illustrations, these sold millions of copies in the 1930s and were equally popular in paperbacks of the 1950s.

Smith was born in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of a Navy commodore and attended Dartmouth College. Following hungry years in Greenwich Village, working part-time as an advertising agent, Smith achieved meteoric success with the publication of Topper in 1926. He was an early resident of Free Acres, a social experimental community developed by Bolton Hall according to the economic principles of Henry George in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. He died of a heart attack in 1934 while vacationing in Florida.

Reviews

[Charmed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a second hand book store barried under a pile of books that hadn't seen the light in at least 30years. Being a fan of the much done freaky Friday trope I decided to give it a try. Once I got past my shock and slightly squirmy uncomfortableness with the dated language and some of the attitudes. I was sucked in and genuinely laughed out loud not in the fake lol spence but full on belly laugh with tears in my eyes. One of the interesting take aways that I got from this book besides the enjoyable experience was a better understanding of just how far backwards society in general moved in the era of the fifties. This was a book that wasn't as dated as I thought it would be because I had an idea that there is always forward momentum in society and that since in a historical sence this era came before the fifties I expected it to be even more offensive. Don't get me wrong there is a lot to find objectionable in the attitudes of society in general illustrated in the book but it brought home to me that the fifties were actually reactionary that there was progress that had been made to go backwards from. Which was a nice insight for me from a delightfully funny dated but eminently readable book.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A body-swap comedy about a husband and wife who are under the influence of a strange ancient Egyptian statuette.

I picked this up a while ago as a bundle of nine Thorne Smith novels. I was recommended Rain in the Doorway and I've seen the movie that was made of Topper.

This was a curious read. I expected it to feel dated and was ready to compensate appropriately - for language and un-PC attitudes. There was some of that, but I hadn't expected to not understand quite so much of the text. There were phrases that were clearly slang or common usage of the time that I didn't get. It was also hard to tell what was of the era and what was farcical over-the-top comedy. So when there's adultery and attempted murder and the characters treat it quite breezily was that the characters or...?

Also just some odd plot choices:
There's a whole section in a mental hospital - not because the husband or wife are talking about being the opposite sex and deemed mad - but because the wife-in-hubby's-body goes out on a drinking spree with a business client and they get kidnapped by ambulance staff that decide to teach them a lesson.

Toward the end, after hubby-in-wife's-body has given birth, he wakes up in his own body again. In hospital. On being discovered there's not so much "how did you get in here?" but doctors and nurses doubting their own sanity and for some reason wanting to throw the baby out the window!

However it had its moments and I did laugh for real in places.

I suspect I picked the book in the set which was always going to have not aged as well. If I try another I'll try Topper I think.

[V. Briceland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as one doesn't turn to Wodehouse for deep thought or characterization, one doesn't pick up a Thorne Smith novel hoping for trenchant realism. From the former author we expect a merry cavalcade of simpletons, wise butlers, tart aunts, and cow creamers; from Smith you get bootleg gin, hip flasks brimming with rye, supernatural antics, courtroom scenes with crabby old judges, and, inevitably, women's step-ins.

The premise of Turnabout involves a husband and wife body switch, executed by means so trivial that even the author barely spends any time justifying it. The comic results, however, are snicker-out-loud funny, as the pair stretch and snap their gender roles to lengths greater than Silly Putty itself could bear. Sure, the effort is lightweight, but who really cares when Smith's effortless style elicits so many belly laughs?

[Sarah B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has turned out a lot more wild and laugh out loud funny than I had ever expected from something written in the 1930s. I was actually laughing at the outrageous situations in this story! It's so totally random and hilarious! The things the characters do, the insane events..! I guess I had thought stories were more, well, dead in that decade but this is a wild story about a man and his wife who switch bodies. And the results are so crazy it's funny! And books very rarely make me laugh. But this was very funny!

And this is very readable...the story moved at a fast pace too. I believe I did look up a few words but only because I chose to (because I was curious) and it's not really required.

The main focus of the story is how well or how badly they are able to actually take each other's place. Can Sally do his job at the office making advertisements? Can Tim handle being a house wife? Will the neighbors think the Willows have gone insane, especially since their voices keep changing?

This story was loads of fun!

[Esteban · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book, the theme is one we have seen before in other books and films, though this book precedes most of them.
Mr Ram tired of the couple's constant bickering decides to adopt a hands on strategy to teach them a lesson. So the turnabout comes about.
I remember reading this book with my sister and both of us laughing like idiots for extended periods of time.

[Ginger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acouple are grossing about who has the toughest life so a genie switches them into each other's bodies. Fun.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This might be my fav book ever. The storyline is original and hilarious.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It has been a good number of years since I last read Thorne Smith's ribald fantasy classic entitled "The Night Life of the Gods" (1931), but I can still recall how thoroughly enjoyable and hilarious the book was for me. In this wonderful romp, a NYC-based scientist, Hunter Hawk, invents a device that can turn people to stone. He soon meets Megaera, one of the Little People, who has the converse ability to turn statues into living people, and the two later manage to bring all the stone effigies of the ancient Roman gods at the Metropolitan Museum to life, with increasingly madcap results. The book was chosen for inclusion in Cawthorn & Moorcock's excellent overview volume "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books," and deservedly so. But "Night Life..." was not the only ribald and uproarious fantasy written by Thorne Smith in 1931 to attain pride of place in Cawthorn & Moorcock's volume. That same year, in the depths of the Great Depression and the Prohibition Era, Thorne gave to the world not only his first (and only) children's book, "Lazy Bear Lane," but also the great adult fantasy "Turnabout," which Cawthorn & Moorcock describe using such words as "outrageous," "fantastic" and "light-hearted." Personally, I just loved it!

"Turnabout" was initially released as a $2 Doubleday hardcover, its front cover sporting the somewhat misleading blurb "A hilarious comedy of modern morals and manners." Almost a dozen other editions would follow, not counting various e-book incarnations. The volume that I was fortunate enough to acquire is the 1940 movie tie-in hardcover from Sun Dial Press, its dust jacket picturing the film's stars Carole Landis and John Hubbard. (I know, I know...John WHO?) Now, as to Thorne Smith himself, for those of you who have not had the pleasure of encountering him as of yet, he was born in Annapolis, Maryland in 1892, the son of a naval commodore. After working in an advertising agency for some time, Smith entered in on his career as a novelist, and before his premature passing in 1934, at age 42, managed to come out with some 13 novels, plus a book of poetry, a book of short stories based on his own time in the Navy, and that children's book. His 1926 classic "Topper" was famously filmed in 1937, and its sequel, 1932's "Topper Takes a Trip," made it to the big screen in 1939. His final book, a posthumous affair entitled "The Passionate Witch" (1941), would appear in theaters the following year under the title "I Married a Witch" and helped jump-start the career of Veronica Lake; it would also serve as one of the inspirations for the classic '60s TV show "Bewitched." As for "Turnabout," besides providing the source material for that 1940 film, it is also the basis for the short-lived television comedy in 1979 that lasted all of seven episodes, and gives us a plot device that has since become a classic in and of itself. More on this in a moment.

"Turnabout" introduces the reader to the not-so-happily married couple Tim (age 35) and Sally (age 28) Willows, who have been wedded for all of five years. The hard-drinking Willowses live in the pleasant suburban community of Cliffside (whether or not this is supposed to be the town of Cliffside Park in NJ is never made clear) with their two servants, the Twills, and their gigantic, cravenly and imbecilic dog, the appropriately named Dopey. When we first encounter Tim and Sally, they are engaged in what is seemingly their favorite pastime...arguing endlessly about the most trivial of subjects, in this case the manner in which Mr. Willows removes his socks at night. A wild party later that evening in their house leads to the inevitable sexual hanky-panky amongst their guests, including local lothario Carl Bentley putting the moves on Sally herself, resulting in his near murder by Tim with a rolling pin. The next day, Tim and Sally are at it again, each complaining about the other's more fortunate lot. Tim is jealous of Sally being able to stay at home all day while he commutes to his miserable copywriter job at a NYC ad agency, while Sally has already opined "I wish I could change places with you. Oh, how I do! You clear out of it all every morning, go to the city and see something new--eat where you like and what you like--interesting men to talk to--good-looking girls to see...I'd change places with you quick as a wink. [I’m a] prisoner. All I need is a striped suit and a number...." But unbeknownst to the bickering Willowses, their conversation is being overheard by a very unlikely and increasingly annoyed auditor: Mr. Ram, an ancient Egyptian statuette that had been given to Tim by his globe-trotting Uncle Dick. And eventually, Mr. Ram has had enough, and using his/its mystical arts, takes some decided action.

Thus, the following morning, Tim is aghast to find himself--or rather, his soul/spirit/essence--residing in Sally's body, and his wife's spirit residing in his! Mr. Ram, it seems, has effected some kind of turnabout switcheroo to teach the couple a well-needed lesson! After some understandable stupefaction, Sally does what she has to do: namely, put on Tim's suit and hop on the commuter train to go to work. And Tim, in Sally's lovely form, but with a cigar firmly clamped between his teeth, heads to the dressing room to figure out the intricacies of donning makeup, a brassiere and garters. (Interestingly, when "Tim" is referred to in the book, the author means the man trapped in a woman's body, and the same for "Sally." We get the sense that the author is telling us that a person is what his/her spirit or essence is, and not the fleshly shell that it inhabits.) As the book progresses, we see how each of the two fares, with Sally having increasingly wacky adventures at the office (almost creating a scandal when she thoughtlessly walks into the ladies' room) and Tim finding it more and more problematic to fend off the advances of that lustful Carl Bentley. No wonder the 1980 Del Rey/Ballantine edition of "Turnabout" (the last English-language print edition to date) gave customers the blurb "The other person's grass is always greener...until you have to mow it"! And then, just as matters are beginning to settle down just a little bit, Tim comes to realize, to his panic-stricken disbelief, that he is very much pregnant....

In my review of the superior horror film "The Mephisto Waltz" (1971), I mentioned that I have long been a fan of these mind/body swap stories--even the widely reviled final episode of "Star Trek," whose title, "Turnabout Intruder," is a seeming homage to Thorne's classic work--and this 1931 granddaddy of the genre is surely no exception. (And no, I still haven't seen the popular hit of 2003 entitled "Freaky Friday.") As Cawthorn & Moorcock mention, in this book "the incidents become progressively more outrageous." And indeed, despite the fact that "Turnabout" is very episodic in nature, the author yet manages to pile up one marvelous comedic set piece after another. The book thus features any number of terrifically amusing scenes, including that drunken cocktail party; the sight of the ineptly made-up Tim entertaining the visiting gossip Mrs. Jennings; a church supper that the drunken Tim and Sally manage to bring to mayhem; Tim's first visit to an obstetrician; the extended segment in which Sally has to entertain a visiting client, with the two ultimately falling asleep, in a drunken (there's that word again!) stupor, in a parked ambulance, and later being tormented inside a morgue and a madhouse; the wild vengeance that Tim exacts on the lecherous Bentley; a madcap sequence in a police station and a courthouse; and, of course, Tim's hysterical (in both senses of the word) delivery in a put-upon hospital. (The book is perfect fare for all those people who have ever wondered how a man might deal with the travails of pregnancy and parturition!) And the book, as I say, is funny; laugh-out-loud funny, and I am not a person who laughs out loud very often while reading. Actually, "Turnabout" may just be the funniest book I've read since Eric Frank Russell's "The Great Explosion" (1962) around five years ago.

What makes Smith's book so very amusing? I hesitate to go into it, as any discussion of what makes something funny almost inevitably tends to rob it of the magical quality that makes a person laugh in the first place. But let's take a chance here. Part of what makes Smith's work so funny here are some of the characters' names, such as Dopey, naturally, but also Tim's boss, Mr. Gibber, who delivers a protracted speech on the necessity of brevity. The author is not above the use of puns in his work (when Tim asks Sally if she expects him to whelp their young single-handed, she replies "God helps those who whelp themselves"), as well as constant put-downs and insults ("You'd be writing poison-pen letters if you knew how to write," Tim tells a female neighbor). The fact that Tim and Sally are swizzled much of the time is funny (the removal of his booze while pregnant is especially tough on Tim), and the fact that people in an argument often get sidetracked by insignificant words is especially so. Thus, Mr. Gibber, when exhorting his underlings to be more pithy, gets into a whole big thing with Tim when Tim asks "You mean the stuff that goes into helmets?" The book's many wry comments are funny (such as when Tim thinks "People who waited for breaks...usually went broke," and when Sally muses "Men and women were merely animals that put their fur coats in storage or pawn instead of shedding them all over laps and landscapes"), and imaginative and crazy situations abound. The screwball comedy was a distinct cinematic genre of the 1930s, and "Turnabout" might fairly be termed a screwball novel. Unfortunately, the 1940 film, which I once saw at NYC's Film Forum, double billed with another Carole Landis picture, "One Million B.C." (also from 1940), is, if memory serves, nowhere near as funny, and that 1979 TV show, from what I've heard, was pretty dreadful. Comedy, it would seem, is a very elusive proposition, unless all the ingredients are under the firm control of a master, as they are here.

For the rest of it, Smith also has some points to raise in his otherwise comedic novel, and allows himself opportunity to make some trenchant comments on such subjects as suburban living, the world of advertising (a milieu that the author knew all too well), church suppers (based on his extensive comments, the reader gets the feeling that Smith must have suffered through any number of them!), and modern-day morality. And speaking of that latter, his book is surprisingly frank when it comes to sexual matters, and the swinging suburbanites we witness give the '60s free-love hippies a run for their money! Indeed, Tim drunkenly couples with the attractive divorcee Mrs. Meadows on the night of that drunken party, an infraction that Sally forgives quite readily. No wonder the 50-cent Paperback Library edition from 1963 called the book "Thorne Smith's sexiest novel" on its cover (actually, I've heard from several sources that Smith's 1933 work "Rain in the Doorway" is his most risqué novel), and the 60-cent Paperback Library edition from 1965 somewhat misleadingly proclaimed "A dazzling, sexy novel about wife and husband swappers." The book holds up marvelously, more than 90 years after it first appeared.

Indeed, I have very few complaints to lodge against Thorne Smith's work here. Yes, the resolution of the book may be even more far-fetched than its setup, but then again, who knows what the limits of Mr. Ram's extraordinary powers may be? Some bits in the book are unavoidably dated (such as references to President Hoover, the Volstead Act, and the difficulty of understanding those newfangled "talkies"), but not nearly as many as one might expect. I also found it a bit odd that the author refrains from telling us the gender of the baby that Tim delivers, obfuscating matters by calling the kid "the bundle," "the infant" and "the child." Still, this was obviously a deliberate decision on the part of the author. The bottom line is that "Turnabout" is a splendid entertainment, surely deserving, after 42 years, of a new edition in print. Good laughs, after all, are something that all of us could use more of these days. As for me, I look forward to reading more of Thorne Smith in the near future. The hardcover entitled "The Thorne Smith 3-Bagger," from 1934, which includes the comedic fantasies "Topper," "Skin and Bones" (1933) and "The Glorious Pool" (1934) in one volume, is even now exerting its siren call on me....

(By the way, this review originally appeared on the FanLit website at https://fantasyliterature.com/ ... a most ideal destination for all fans of fantasy literature....)

[Valerie]

None of these editions seem to be the one I read.

This was made into a short-lived tv series with John Shuck. The tv series was pretty good. The book doesn't seem to have made much of an impression on me, for good or ill.

[Nicole Diamond · Rating 3 out of 5]

If it has one star I liked it a lot
If it has two stars I liked it a lot and would recommend it
If it has three stars I really really liked it a lot
If it has four stars I insist you read it
If it has five stars it was life changing

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun twist on domestic comedy by a master of the genre. Enjoy at your own risk.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute if dated little fantasy.

[Sallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early take on the Freaky Friday theme.

[Michael Economy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty funny, a little hard to read.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this in fucking jail it was alright

[Ani Ivanova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure enjoyment for my soul !

[R.E. Conary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Turnabout, written in 1931, is a switched-bodies tale set in the imbibing, adulterous, suburban outskirts of New York City. The early scenes and witty dialogue could have been written with William Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man (1934) in mind, or Cary Grant and Constance Bennett in Topper (1937)—also written by Thorne Smith, or Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940); three films seen many times on TV during my latchkey youth. The thought of seeing Grant playing a woman would have been hilarious. Oh, wait. He did do that in I Was A Male War Bride (1949) with Ann Sheridan.

Unfortunately, the book doesn’t live up to the wit and humor of those early scenes or the hype (“Thorne Smith’s sexiest novel” “Outrageously funny”) on the cover of my 1963 copy (picked up on 10 cent day at a Friends of the Library book sale). It’s very dated and humor descends quickly into just plain silliness as wit gives way to utter implausibility.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom and Sally are a married couple in 1931 suburbia. They've got the potential to be a great match but they're constantly arguing, constantly frustrated with each other and not particularly faithful. An Egyptian household deity (they got his figure from a relative) decides to give them a wake-up call by having them swap bodies.
What results isn't an exploration of gender as much as a comedy about two individuals adapting to their new awkward lives, from Tom-as-Sally having to master makeup to Sally-as-Tom embarrassing a former lover by flirting with him, knowing exactly how everyone around will interpret that. Funny, but not as funny as Smith's best work. There is a very funny afterword in this edition, with proclamations about Smith's work is realism at its finest — like life itself, his novels are empty of meaning!

[Ray Coons · Rating 5 out of 5]

How many times have we looked at a spouse or significant other and wished we could trade places? Changing their easy life for our burdensome toil? That's the premise behind this 1931 offering from Thorne Smith.
Tim and Sally Willows are bored with each other and envious of the others lot. Their bickering and sniping upsets a small Egyptian statue that had been a wedding gift from a relative. Mr. Ram grants their wish with amusing results.
This book was made into a movie in 1940, and while some of the references are a bit dated 90 years later, it's still an amusing and clever tale.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

When reading the description, this seemed like something I'd enjoy a lot. I liked the movie Topper, I like things from the 1920s/1930s generally, I like comedic novels ...
But I did not like this. It's got a few slightly astute observations about gender roles, but in general the humor is mean-spirited and was decidedly not for me.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorne Smith's books are absolutely fantastic, to me. In this one a couple is complaining about the things which one has to do --- a god manages things for them and it seems to work out well. Until the man, becomes pregnant. Be careful what you wish for! A wonderful escape from life for a while!

[Mike Reiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was very funny. Like others have said a laugh out loud funny.

[Phillip Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I grew accustomed to Thorne's jokes by the end, I was in tears laughing for the entire first half. Really enjoyable read.

[Michael P.]

I was so fed up by the middle of chapter 2 that I put the book in the trash.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the earlier books(earliest?) featuring a couple that swaps bodies and experience life as the opposite sex. It's been a long time since I read it, but it was a hilarious satire, though a bit dated in spots.

[Chapter · Rating 2 out of 5]

1930, campy, Egyptian idol, switching bodies, man has baby

[D-day · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest books I have ever read.

[Phillip]

Thorne Smith is a largely forgotten American novelist and humorist. Most people know "Topper," but not the book he wrote. They know it from a vadid film with Cary Grant and an even more vapid fifties sit-com. If the original were faithfully made as a movie, it would have to be rated R, and not for either language or violence.
Thorne Smith should be credited with creating the entire genre of humor with a supernatural twist ("I Dream of Jeanie" "Bewitched")
"Turnabout" is the story of a young suburban couple with the usual stresses and tensions of married life. In their bedroom there is a little ancient Egyptian figurine they call Mr. Ram. Mr. Ram it turns out is conscious and really tired of husband and wife saying they have the harder role (an old premise in folklore and literature), so he switches their minds or bodies. Now each of them has to deal with the body and life of the other. The wife becomes pregnant (which means the husband is pregnant). Imagine the episode when she goes to an obstetrician. How would a man in a woman's body respond to an exam? This is one of several LOL scenes in the book. In fact I laughed out loud several times reading this book.