An excellent book, if a trifle wordy. This could well be a continuation of "The Late George Apley," Marquand's 1937 Pulitzer Prize winning book. Harry Pulham examines his life prior to the 25th anniversary of his Harvard graduation. He thinks about what went right and what went wrong with business, his marriage, his kids, & life. Marquand's brilliant phrase from George Apley "I am the sort of man I am, because environment prevented my being anything else." applies as much to Harry Pulham as it did to George Apley, & Pulham examines his life along these lines. If you love Boston and Boston history, this is a must read along with Cleveland Amory's "The Bostonians," Edwin O'Connor's "The Last Hurrah," Joseph Dineen's "Ward Eight," James Michael Curley's autobiography "I'd Do it Again," and Marquand's "The Late George Apley."

There is always a young couple playing a prominent role in every Mr. Moto story. It usually is an American in the Orient who falls in love with a girl already involved in espionage. Mr. Moto's role seems to be to help the couple and intervene when necessary. What makes this tale different in this instance is that the young people are both professional spies. They are in Tokyo to infiltrate a suspicious organization fronting for the Soviets whose operatives strive to create a major international incident damaging to the American position in Japan. Moto is as deadly as ever taking out the bad guys but he is now more apt to delegate the task to subordinates. This is clearly the best Mr. Moto book in the series.

This novel has been called the shrewdest portrait of American life since Sinclair Lewis's Main Street (1920). That may be an overly ambitious claim, but the book has its points (it has also been called a painstakingly accurate social study of a New England town), and many will find it "a good old-fashioned read," a genteel, mildly absorbing family saga covering two generations. My main complaint is that it is simply too long: 559 pages, when it should have been about two-thirds that length. It is old-fashioned all right, in the sense that its pace is decidedly slow and deliberate; those who like their fiction fast-paced and dramatic need to look elsewhere. There is a sense here of all the time in the world, and the modest events of the story unfold in quite a leisurely fashion, with lengthy passages of description, exposition, explanation, reflection, retrospection. Marquand feels obliged to spell out much that a more modern writer would suggest, imply, leave his reader to infer, or simply omit. I sometimes felt I would never get to the end of it. Occasionally the book has an elegiac quality.

The protagonist, earnest, conscientious, buttoned-down, and rather dull Charley Gray, is an upper middle-class banker in his forties, back from the war, resuming his place in an old, small, traditional New York City bank in 1947, living in what would now be called a yuppie suburban development with his wife and two children, and worrying about promotion in the bank. A large part of the novel, however, is devoted to his youth, family life, and first romance in the old, small, traditional New England town (Clyde, Mass.) where he grew up and where his family has its roots. Hence some of the novel has a postwar setting of 1947 New York City and suburbia, but most of it has a prewar setting and is a portrait of New England small-town life from World War I through the 1920s.

Perhaps the most memorable character is Charley's father, a charming, irresponsible ne'er-do-well of good family and no accomplishment, who promises much and delivers little, and who loses any money he gets his hands on by his compulsive speculation in the stockmarket. Charley is determined not to be like his father. The business about the visiting, snooping academic anthropologist/sociologist who writes a study of Clyde and has a passion for categorizing and pigeonholing everything and everyone is heavy-handed and becomes tiresome, strained, and intrusive. (There is an odd slip in which Marquand has the misapprehension that a Duesenberg is "a foreign car"--a strange mistake for an American social historian of the 1920s and 1930s.)

John P. Marquand (1893-1960) enjoyed that rare thing, both popular and critical success, for the last two decades of his life. He was widely read and admired as a distinguished American novelist. He has few readers today. This book has usually been regarded as one of his better efforts. He was a facile writer whose prose here is smooth and readable enough, but lacks crispness, incisiveness, pungency, wit. In the end, the whole performance is pleasant and agreeable but hardly gripping or searching or profound; it is, instead, prolix, rather bland, a little tired, and somewhat dated. And the big decisive scene, the moment of truth toward which the entire novel seems to be building is, when it finally arrives, "a strangely hollow climax," to use Marquand's words (and an all-too-predictable one as well). If you want to read Marquand at his best, before he began to take himself too seriously as a social historian, try The Late George Apley (Pulitzer Prize, 1938), Wickford Point (1939), and perhaps H. M. Pulham, Esquire (1941). I believe all three are livelier and more engaging than this book. (The last of these has a protagonist who has much in common with Charley Gray and who has his own "point of no return" story to tell; indeed, H. M. Pulham, Esquire shares its major themes with Point of No Return.)

There are few books published like this any more and I wonder why. One reason could be that people do not read like they once did and this is why serious fiction concerns itself with either life in the university (hardly the stomping ground for everyman figures) and alternately freaks and geeks. Since the death of John Cheever, there have been few books that address the trials and tribulations of the middle and upper middle class reader. One does not find sensational crimes or magic realism in works by John Marquand. While there certainly is a place for these sorts of things, it is a pity that Marquand's influence waned with his death in the 1960s.

This book concerns themes that probably are more universal than what one finds in contemporary literature. A man is seeking to get a promotion in his firm and he is in competition with another person for it. During the novel we really get "the story of his life, using the "flashback technique that Marquand made famous in all of his best books. Along the way there is regret and a curiosity about what he might lost by not pursuing a different path. Not exactly earth shattering events, but things that grownups experience everyday.

One wonders if the reason that people do not read as they once did is due to television and other assorted distraction or for the simple reason that the books that are published are so very far removed from common experiences.

Marquand's fall since the 1960s has been a sad one. He was at one time, one the best-selling authors in the US. It is a tragedy that more of his works are not in print, this one in particular. If ever an author desereved "The Library of America" treatment it is he.

I discovered "Point of No Return" as a teenager. It sat on a shelf in my father's library and sounded like an interesting title. It is now an old friend.

I've reread this subtle novel many times over the years and find, remarkably, that with each reading I get a different sense of Marquand's ultimate message. In fact, the whole story seems to take on new meaning over time, a delightful characteristic of every great book.

Marquand is a wonderful author. I am currently savoring his "So Little Time" and recommend all of his work. "Point of No Return," however, will always be my favorite.

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is a departure from my habitual choice of biographical reading, which is usually limited to real-life individuals who've stood astride human history. And George Apley of (merely) Boston is fictional.

Author John Marquand has invented a make-believe chronicler named Mr. Willing to tell the story of the latter's life long friend, George Apley (1866-1933). The biographer's source material is comprised primarily of his own recollections and numerous letters exchanged between Apley and friends and family over the decades. Willing begins with a brief account of George's ancestry, then proceeds through his subject's birth, boyhood, and years at Harvard and law school forward to his marriage, the birth of his children, then his sojourns in middle and old age.

The trouble with this novel is that it seems Marquand didn't have a clear vision of the point he was trying to make. On one hand, Willing's biography is sympathetic. He obviously admires Apley for being a loyal friend, loving husband and father, fair and considerate employer, principled gentleman, and patriotic American. Willing doesn't condemn his friend's gradual alienation from his children and a changing society as he ages. (What a surprise!) And his generally favorable bias doesn't prevent him from mentioning Apley's low opinion of the Irish, Catholics, and Jews, but he doesn't dwell upon these flaws - perhaps because he was of like mind. Taken at this face value, the book is a simple tribute to a good and upstanding life however unprepossessing it may have been.

On the other hand, without any obvious malice, Marquand (through Willing again) manages to convey the fact that Apley takes himself, his family name, his privileged class, and Boston way too seriously. Anything beyond the Boston city limits is held in a frank disregard verging on contempt. He fails to heed the words of an uncle who found it necessary to counsel: "Most people in the world don't know who the Apleys are and they don't give a damn." Also, Marquand attributes to his fictional subject no great achievements on the national or world stage. Rather, George spends a lifetime attending the board meetings of charities, participating in "intelligent discussion" groups and clubs, dabbling in the minutiae of local politics, and dispensing unheeded advice to his offspring. Because of all this, I've decided that THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is, in the balance, more of a gentle satire than anything else. The thing is, it's too subtle for this 21st century reader. (Perhaps it was more appreciated in the year first published - 1936.) It's as if Marquand didn't love or hate the type of man or social class his subject represents with sufficient enough fervor to be truly effective at either.

At the very best, THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is an interesting description of the evolution of a gentleman and society of that time and place. I liked it to that extent, but was left with the nagging regret that my time would've been better spent reading a contemporary account of a real individual whose life had made ripples in a pond bigger than that of the city he or she lived in. Hmm, now where's my unread biography of Captain Kangaroo?

J.P. Marquand was well known in his day, both as a serious writer(The Late George Apley won a Pulitzer Prize) and for the Mr. Moto detective series (made into movies starring Peter Lorre as the title character). This novel makes skillful use of the device of the unreliable narrator; it is told from the point of view of a writer putting together a life of Apley who, like his subject, is thoroughly conventional, and thus does not realize that his portrait of Apley reveals the sterility of the latter's life. The novel is also a skillful depiction of a particular class in a particular place and time. I agree with the other reviewers that it is a shame that it is out of print.

John P. Marquand probably was one of the most successful authors of his day and this book, for which he won a Pulitzer prize was the start of his brilliant career. Unfortunately, with Marquand's death in 1960, he fell from favor with the academy who was itself enamoured with tales of life in a university and stories addressing issues of gender and sex. Marquand's stories about middle aged WASPs in Boston coping with trying to come to grips with their lives were no longer in fashion and sadly have not returned to the center place that they previously occupied.

This is a novel about manners and invokes the particular time and place of the WASP ascendency in America, just before the second World War. Marquand's hero is a representative of what used to be known as a "Boston Brahmin." Marquand handles Apley with a mixture of bemusement and foundness. He has clearly met George Apley's in his life and knows the type well. What would have been in less capable hands a mere characture, becomes a full portrait of what was at the time, a dying breed. Marquand sensed this and this provides the point of departure for the book.

"The Late George Apley is a bit of a pastische of privately printed books designed to memorialize a dearly departed loved one. This allows Marquand to use his frequently used flashback technique to describe the particulars of Apley's life. At times this provides Marquand with the opportunity to indulge in both high comedy and low drama, as is the case when Apley falls in love with a girl who is both Irish and Catholic. Although this enables some satire on the subject of the way Boston's elite viewed the Irish, it is also a source of regret that Apley, like so many characters in Marquand's books, did not make a different choice in life. Sentiments that as Jonathan Yardley has observed "are not just limited to the denizens of Backbay or Harvard Square."

Provided that you don't come in with unbelievably high expectations, this book can be pretty enjoyable. Actually, it is a collection of four different books. The second book in the collection, "Think Fast, Mr. Moto," is the best of the four.
Just a little background: Mr. Moto is a Japanese secret agent (these books were written before Pearl Harbor). Although he is the title character in all of the books, the main character is usually an American travelling abroad who crosses paths with Mr. Moto. The American invariably finds himself tangled in a web of crime and/or espionage, and he always has questions as to the trustworthiness of Mr. Moto. These questions usually cause the American to end up working against Moto for a time. In the end, however, it is always revealed that the mysterious Mr. Moto really is the "good guy" and the American comes around in the end. The stories all follow a definite formula; by the last two books in the collection, you know pretty much what is going to happen several pages in advance. However, if you take it for what it is--light reading from a different era--it is perfectly enjoyable.

This is a "must have" book for your library if you like mystery and/or detective stories. Better than Sherlock Holmes!

I only wish that there was a "Complete Mr. Moto" on the market. That way I could be sure that I have every single Mr. Moto story in my library.

After reading, "Point of No Return," I was interested in learning more about the author of this intriguing novel. Millicent Bell's literary biography fills the bill in spades. I came away with a much greater understanding of John P. Marquand, and how his life intersected with his characters, plot and theme of the book I had read. In addition, the biography offers analysis and commentary of the author's novels, which gave me a fuller critical perspective. The fact of Marquand's own unfulfilled life can be fruitfully read into the analysis of "Point of No Return" and his other novels, as well.

This book is an exciting thriller written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Most of the story takes place on a trip by two young Americans to Ghuru Nor in Mongolia prior to World War II.

This was the second in the Mr. Moto series, begun shortly after Marquand returned from his 1935 China trip. As was his custom, Marquand used two young people as the protagonists who found themselves unwittingly immersed in a mystery. While they struggled to solve the dilemma, the amateur sleuths were aided by Mr. Moto who appeared at crucial moments to make the heavy decisions and do the necessary liquidating.

Marquand does a good job of describing the tensions in pre-World War II China . In order to enjoy the story, the reader will have to ignore some 1930's racial stereotypes.

In this early Moto book written after the author's visit to Shanghai and the Orient, Moto saves a young couple and simultaneously serves the interests of the Japanese Empire. Wilson Hitchings is heir to the Shanghai branch of Hitchings Brothers, bankers and commission merchants. He is sent by his uncle to Honolulu to shut down a gambling casino run by a distant relative named Eva. The uncle fears the gambling operation is creating too much bad publicity for the Hitchings family. Mr. Moto is also interested in closing down the gambling operation since money is being funnelled through the casino by Chinese and Russian interests to anti-Japanese bandits in Manchuria. This book is an exciting thriller written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

The chief characters in this sixty year old novel, Madge and Jeffrey Wilson, resemble the couple of John P. Marquand and his wife at the time of his second marriage. Reading the biography of Marquand by Millicent Bell, one learns that Marquand's wife was also managerial and given to interior decorating on a rather lavish scale. Jeffrey Wilson, hailing from Bragg, Massachusetts, a fictitious place, is a play doctor. That is to say, he works on other people's scripts to make them suitable vehicles for Broadway.

Jeff has a remote relationship with his son Jim, although things are easier from his perspective when interacting with daughter Gwen and younger son Charlie. Jeff feels that had he not married Madge, he might have written plays of his own. Jeff is concerned that Jim may be called to go into the service. It seems that in the beginning of the story Jim is enrolled in a course of military science at Harvard. The novel commences prior to the time of America's involvement in World War II.

The talk at all of the cocktail parties centers on war prospects. Persons such as Walter Newcombe, a former classmate and now a foreign correspondent, are prized as guests. They are thought to be in the know. Jeffrey's wife Madge is not only an arranger of furniture, she is an arranger of social obligations. Jeffrey feels that he knows too many people and is obliged to shift his view too often. Jeffrey's sister, four years older, is someone he thinks could be put into a Grant Wood painting.

Jeff's play-doctoring carries him to Hollywood. He cannot afford to deal with other than pot boilers he tells his friend Minot Roberts. Madge does not join Jeffrey for the trip west since his script-writing stints keep him too busy at ridiculous hours to permit any of the kind of socializing she enjoys.

The book is something of a roman a clef. Unfortunately I did not have the Bell biography at my elbow as I read SO LITTLE TIME. Marquand writes archly, ironically in a realistic style of the social and political matters of his day. He creates lively scenes. I was interested in undertaking this reading by an essay of Jonathan Yardley's I read on the internet. I believe that the essay appeared in THE WASHINGTO9N POST. At any rate, I agree with Yardley that Marquand writes lovingly and mockingly of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment. This particular volume is a very strong piece of the Marquand oeuvre.

To continue to briefly summarize the plot, while Jeff is in California, his son Jim drops out of school to go into the army. Inevitably, perhaps, Jeff becomes romantically involved with his long time friend and leading lady. He encounters Walter Newcombe again who his on his way on a clipper ship to China. Jeff manages to write a rough draft of a play, but upon reading it determines it is lousy and arranges for his return home.

After Pearl Harbor, Jeff travels to Washington D.C. He has in mind signing up for duty with his old air squadron. Upon seeing the young age of the officers, he returns home, much to the relief of Madge. One of the ancillary texts throughout the novel has been the involvement of son Jim in a serious relationship that his mother dislikes more than his father.

This book tells the story of Jeffrey Wilson, a success writer, who's job is to fix plays that have potential but are lacking something. Jeffrey Wilson lives in New York with his wife and children. However, at the brink of the story, World War II has broken out and there is much debate and anxiety as to whether the United States will enter the war.

The story is actually a series of events as Jeffrey and the nation change their attitudes about their involvement with the war. Jeffrey also deals with his stale marriage and his relationship with his eldest son, Jim, who inevitably will be on the front lines if the United States enters the war. Jeffrey recalls his World War I days and how that changed him and fears what another world war will do to his son. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Jeffrey realizes that time is short and he encourages his son to get the most out of life now, as there may be no tomorrow.

This book was a little bit dry. There really wasn't much tension and Jeffrey wasn't all that interesting. Marquand, however, captures the era between World War I and II and writes about it so that there is a tremendous amount of social history contained in this long book. All in all, though, I was glad to put it down and the ending didn't have the impact I would've hoped. If you are interested in learning about the early 40's and the United States' feelings towards the war in Europe, this book is outstanding, otherwise the book is fairly dull.

As always, Marquand's thoughtful novels address universal issues in a very personal way. It is interesting to reflect on his 1939 perspective about politics in the United States in view of the world situation today. So many of the observations still fit to a tee. Reading this book is like spending time with old friends, smart ones who help you to understand that there is no going back and that life isn't fair.