Eleanor Moskovitz is having a rough time - the man she thought could
be the one left her with no warning, she's having a hard time finding
purpose at work, and she still lives with her overprotective Jewish
mother. To make matters worse, on her way to a new job interview, her
taxi is rear-ended by one of New York society's most popular socialites,
Patricia Bellamy. Patricia insists Eleanor come up to her apartment to
freshen up. There she meets Margaux, Patricia's sullen teenage
daughter, still trying to deal with her new life after recovering from
polio. Eleanor and Margaux take to each other, and when Patricia finds
out Eleanor was a teacher, she hires her to tutor her daughter. Margaux
blossoms under Eleanor's tutelage, and Patricia is thrilled that her
daughter has come back to life. So much, that Patricia invites Eleanor
to come with them to their summer home in Connecticut as Margaux's
companion.
Spending her summer with the Bellamys starts out well enough: easy
lessons with Margaux, lunch at the club, and dinner parties with the
neighbors, but Eleanor knows Patricia is keeping Eleanor's Jewish
heritage from her haughty WASP friends. She also can't help but feel
Patricia's husband, Wynn, thinks she's a bad influence on Margaux. But
when Patricia's bohemian brother Tom comes to stay, Eleanor is
smitten, and it seems Tom is, too. But if Patricia finds out, will she still
want Eleanor to work with Margaux? And can the Park Avenue set really
accept Eleanor as one of their own?
NOT OUR KIND by Kitty Zeldis is
an enjoyable and witty novel! Set a couple of years after WWII, Eleanor
is a young woman on the brink of independence in a changing world.
While she'd never do anything to truly hurt her mother and her family
values, Eleanor wants to live life on her own terms, and making a career
change to a private tutor for a rich family is just the first step. On the
other hand, Patricia is dealing with a strained marriage and her
daughter's attempts to return to their old life. Both Eleanor and Patricia
are tested throughout this book, and they both have to figure out what
matters most to them: what is expected, or what will make them happy.
Zeldis' descriptions of 1940s sophisticated fashion, glitzy decor, and
flashy parties bring the world fully to life. Even with a breezy tone,
more serious matters are explored with care and intrigue. A thoughtful
and dazzling historical fiction novel!
With echoes of Rules of Civility and The Boston Girl, a
compelling and thought-provoking novel set in postwar New
York City, about two women—one Jewish, one a WASP—and the
wholly unexpected consequences of their meeting.
One rainy morning in June, two years after the end of
World War II, a minor traffic accident brings together
Eleanor Moskowitz and Patricia Bellamy. Their encounter
seems fated: Eleanor, a teacher and recent Vassar
graduate, needs a job. Patricia’s difficult thirteen-
year-old daughter Margaux, recovering from polio, needs a
private tutor.
Though she feels out of place in the Bellamys’ rarefied
and elegant Park Avenue milieu, Eleanor forms an instant
bond with Margaux. Soon the idealistic young woman is
filling the bright young girl’s mind with Shakespeare and
Latin. Though her mother, a hat maker with a little shop
on Second Avenue, disapproves, Eleanor takes pride in her
work, even if she must use the name "Moss" to enter the
Bellamys’ restricted doorman building each morning, and
feels that Patricia’s husband, Wynn, may have a problem
with her being Jewish.
Invited to keep Margaux company at the Bellamys’ country
home in a small town in Connecticut, Eleanor meets
Patricia’s unreliable, bohemian brother, Tom, recently
returned from Europe. The spark between Eleanor and Tom
is instant and intense. Flushed with new romance and
increasingly attached to her young pupil, Eleanor begins
to feel more comfortable with Patricia and much of the
world she inhabits. As the summer wears on, the two
women’s friendship grows—until one hot summer evening, a
line is crossed, and both Eleanor and Patricia will have
to make important decisions—choices that will reverberate
through their lives.
Gripping and vividly told, Not Our Kind illuminates the
lives of two women on the cusp of change—and asks how
much our pasts can and should define our futures.
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