Beyond the Gray Flannel Suit

David Castronovo is the author of Edmund Wilson, a New York Times Notable Book, as well as studies of Thornton Wilder, the English Gentleman, and the American Gentleman - all published by Continuum. His reviews have appeared in America, Commonweal, Shofar, Forward, and New England Review. Castronovo is Professor of English at Pace University and lives in New York City.

"'Castronovo writes with an easy confidence that makes his journey to the heart of the 1950s both enlightening and engaging. His prose style has the light touch of the literary journalist, together with the breadth and discrimination of the scholar. In this respect he reminds us of his master - Edmund Wilson, on whom he is an authority....Make no mistake, Beyond the Gray Flannel Suit is a keenly observed and exhilarating work'. America 'The 1950s were as important to American literature as the mid-nineteenth century and the jazz-age 1920s Castronovo contends...Top-drawer literary cultural criticism'. Booklist 'The writing is scholarly yet accessible to the educated lay reader. Recommended for public and academic libraries. Library Journal 'Castronovo is an astute, blunt, erudite critic; he is enthusiastic, not jargonistic, and manages to make many of the classic books of the 1950s - the ones most English majors know - seem relevant and fresh'. The Weekly Standard"

• Introduction; 1 Breaking Through; 2 Holden, Dean, and Allen; 3 Angst, Inc.; 4 Rough Customers; 5 The New Observers; 6 The Eggheads; 7 WASP, Catholic, Black, Jewish; 8 Naturalism Reinvented; Afterword; Acknowledgments; Index.