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New York in the late 1950s. A city, and a world, on the cusp of change...
Maggie Gleason is looking toward the future. Part of a midcentury wave of young women seeking new lives in New York City, Maggie works for legendary Port Authority public relations maven Lee K. Jaffe - affectionately known to her loyal staff as Mrs. J. Having left Cleveland, Maggie has come to believe that she can write any story for herself that she imagines.
Pauline Moreau is running from the past - and a shameful secret. She arrives in the city on the brink of despair, saddled with a young daughter who needs more love, attention, and resources than Pauline can ever hope to provide. Seeing that Pauline needs a helping hand, Mrs. J tasks Maggie with befriending, and looking after, Pauline.
As the old New York gives way to the new, and Mrs. J's dream of the world's largest skyscraper begins to rise from the streets of lower Manhattan, Pauline - with the aid of Maggie and Mrs. J - also remakes herself. But when she reignites the scandal that drove her to New York, none of their lives will ever be the same. Maggie must question everything she thought she knew about love, work, ambition, and family to discover the truth about the enigmatic, strong woman she thought she had rescued.
Careers for Women is a masterful novel about the difficulties of building a career, a dream, or a life - and about the powerful small mercies of friendship and compassion.
"Starred Review. Scott's dynamic and provocative novel offers arresting insights into moral dilemmas at the intersection of the personal and the societal." - Booklist
"This finely drawn novel is memorable and rife with textured historical detail." - Publishers Weekly
"What a spectacular novel about the dreams women chase, the choices we make and the power of those decisions to undo us at every turn. I loved it." - Kate Atkinson, author of A God in Ruins
"Careers for Women is a spark plug of a novel. I highly recommend this deftly told gem." - Hannah Pittard, author of Listen to Me
This information about Careers for Women was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Alice Longenbach
Joanna Scott (born 1960) is an American author and Roswell Smith Burrows Professor of English at the University of Rochester.
Joanna Scott is the author of ten books, including The Manikin, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Various Antidotes and Arrogance, which were both finalists for the PEN/Faulkner Award; and the critically acclaimed Make Believe, Tourmaline, Liberation, and Follow Me. She is a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Lannan Award.
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