MYSELF AND I by Janet Lambert

 

Goodness, Susan really does have the beauty of Gwenn with the nice demeanor of Alcie. She is the best of both worlds and Bobby Parrish must either own or destroy her! Bobby is just gross. 

So Susan has an epiphany with the help of Ellin the housekeeper about how she is always doing for others and doesn't take time to do any self-care, as we call it nowadays. She has just gotten a job at a bookstore and is very excited about it. However, before she can begin, she ends up drawing the short straw and has to help drive Tippy and Tippy Two to Fort Knox, where Peter is newly stationed. And frankly, it is fascinating! 

I read a great journal article about Lambert with the following quote in it - “ I loved and still do love Lambert’s attentiveness to history and context. Open up a lot of [other books of that era] and you could be in [any] McWorld. But if you open up Janet Lambert you know she understood how 1946 differed from 1950.”  And she is the same with her settings. Fort Knox and Fort Jay are very different, and you can tell that Janet knows them both like the back of her hand. 

Susan only plans to stay a day or so and then fly home because she doesn't want to give Bobby Parrish (also stationed at Fort Knox) the idea that she has come out to see him. She is very much into playing the field and Booby, I mean Bobby, wants to shackle her to him. 

There is a delightful bit when Tippy first sees the lousy lodgings on the base but quickly knows how to deal with it. She is such a good army wife!  Tippy Two is the best baby in the world, apparently, and other than needing the occasional diaper change, is quite easy to manage. 

The same can not, however, be said of Bobby. He fakes a tank injury to try to get Susan to stay out longer. It works in the short run. She really does care about him and wants him to get well. But in the long run it destroys any hope that she will marry him because he keeps being an entitled, childish, dolt. 

She comes home only a bit later than she intended and she has a delightful date with Keith Drayton (I think he's Drayton, oh the fogginess of my mind) where they talk about the future. He will be collecting patents and she will be running a bookshop empire! 

Bobby comes home for a few days, but she avoids him. There is a scary bit where we find out that Bitsy has been riding around with him trying to pump her for details about Susan and I want to cry out, 
"Don't get in the car, Bitsy! He's a PREDATOR!" But I manage not to. 

Susan has decided to keep working at the book store and perhaps attend some classes at Hunter College, when her father (who has been worried that she is pining for Bobby) surprises her with the offer (obligation, more like) of a trip to "the Orient" where she can be his 'hostess' for a business junket. WHAT WILL SHE DO? 

Two cliffhangers in a row, Janet? What are you up to??