It is a surprise to discover … unflinching honesty in Sloan Wilson's What Shall We Wear to This Party? The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit Twenty Years Before & After…. Wilson's book is virtually swamped in washes of the sentimentality that the author knows is a problem he has never been able to solve. Still, he does recognize his deficiencies, and it is a rare autobiography that puts pride second to truth. That sly, pathetic best foot nearly always slips forward….
[Wilson] has written about what matters. The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, for all its sentimentality, is based on a truth he saw early. Since then everyone, even President Ford, has learned to pay lip service to "the quality of life." But it was no cliché in 1955, when Wilson told the world the Madison Avenue-suburban rat race was not worth running. So many thousands welcomed the book, he fell prey to the very success he had seen as false. (p. 20)
This is a free excerpt of 164 words. There are 188 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Wilson, Sloan 1920–: Critical Essay by Hope Hale Davis Access Pass.
