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Rona Jaffe’s debut, The Best of Everything, not only put her on the map but also spotlighted the life of modern working women in a way that had never been done previously.
Following the lives of five women as they navigate their early careers in New York City at a publishing company, the book was on the New York Times bestseller list within two weeks, staying there for five months. Not even a year later, The Best of Everything was brought to the big screen, with actresses Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Martha Hyer, and Suzy Parker as the young women, taking on the Big Apple.
Daughter of Samuel Jaffe, a high school principal, and Diana Jaffe, whose father built the Carlyle Hotel, Rona Jaffe matured in affluent circumstances, as a lifelong New Yorker. While working as an associate editor at Fawcett Publications in the 1950s, she wrote her debut, and, after achieving much success, was hired to write cultural pieces for Cosmopolitan (a real-life Carrie Bradshaw, if you will).
In the following decades, Jaffe wrote 15 more books, including Class Reunion, a bestseller set on a group of women returning for their twentieth college reunion; Family Secrets, a complex familial drama exploring dynamics across generations; and finally, Mazes and Monsters, a cautionary tale of fantasy role-playing video games, which was adapted into a television movie starring Tom Hanks.
In 1995, Jaffe launched the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards, which provided funding to emerging women writers, granting over $3 million across its 26-year history. As offered by the writer on the Foundation’s website, “All writers need support, but many women in early career have fewer resources available to them and often many demands made upon them. It gives me great pleasure to help some of them make their way at this early stage.”
Throughout her career, Jaffe broke new ground, paving the way for the generations of women writers and stories that followed. Here are some of her most iconic works—many of which use that same sharp, ensemble-of-women structure—including four titles Open Road is now bringing back in new editions.
The Best of Everything
First published in 1958, The Best of Everything served as a reference point for shows like Sex and the City and Mad Men, while offering a precursor to the #MeToo movement.
As put by Kirkus Reviews, “I finally picked it up recently and was blown away by Jaffe’s [...] matter-of-fact depiction of sexual harassment in the workplace decades before the Clarence Thomas hearings [...] I had no idea that anyone in the ’50s was writing like this.”
Although its frank portrayals of female sexuality shocked readers, many were emboldened, seeing versions of themselves in the five young employees of a New York publisher.
Including Caroline, a recent Ivy League graduate, dreaming of ditching the typewriter for a corner office; country girl April, who reinvents herself during her first few months in the city; and Gregg, a go-with-the-flow actress who longs for stability.
Class Reunion
It’s been twenty years since their college graduation from Harvard, and these four friends haven’t seen each other since. Since then, dreams have come and gone, of careers, motherhood, marriage, and more.
After all, much has changed since the fifties, and the girls will confront the time that has passed between them, in “a literary ‘dessert,’ with the unmistakable touch of a master chef” (Associated Press).
After the Reunion
The follow-up to Class Reunion, Jaffe’s After the Reunion is “a wonderful story of women who are ready to take a chance on life” (The Charlotte Observer).
Satisfying, as The Washington Times describes, “the urge of every panting reader who wants to know, as I do, ‘And then what happened?’”, the story picks up five years after the four girls’ class reunion.
Now in their mid-forties, the women are coping with a host of problems, both romantic and domestic, as they work against the social customs that defined their Harvard years.
The Last Chance
Following four female friends in their late thirties, they work against the fast-paced nature of New York City, while looking for love, success, and above all, adventure.
A “page-turner [...] made to be gobbled up in a sitting,” “you won’t be able to stop till it’s done” (Cosmopolitan; New York Times Books Review).
Over the year, they will be forced to make difficult decisions, leading one of the women to a tragic ending…
Family Secrets
A “rich, complex [and] [...] juicy family saga,” Family Secrets follows the fascinating Saffron family and their great Windflower estate (Washington Post).
The patriarch, Adam Saffron, a builder and autocrat, has built their legacy upon superiority—but how long will the dynasty last?
From familial politics to outside threats, the chronicles of this Jewish-American family are a must-read.
The Cherry in the Martini
Charting her life from youth to adulthood, The Cherry in the Martini is a collection of short, personal essays from Jaffe.
From her first feelings of love to finding her place as a writer, “Reading Rona Jaffe is like being presented with a Cartier watch: you know exactly what you’re getting and it’s just what you want” (Cosmopolitan).
The Fame Game
Returning to New York City, Geraldine Thompson is ready to take on what should be her dream job: assistant to Sam Leo Libra, publicity agent to the biggest names across all industries.
But quickly, she finds herself as a puppet in his games. When she falls for one of Libra’s clients, Gerry will have to decide what it is she really wants.
Away from Home
1950s Brazil is a country of opportunity for three optimistic American couples. But just because they’ve found paradise doesn’t mean there aren’t problems to follow.
Feeling restless in their marriages, Helen, Marie, and Mildred attend a masked festival. There, they must decide who they want to be—with and without the men they married.
Mr. Right Is Dead
In this short story collection, Jaffe offers many of the social and cultural themes readers have come to love in her classic works.
In the title novella, a call girl surmounts life’s difficulties while forming her own standards along the way. Included are five other short stories, with topics of female identities, romantic cynicism, and much more.
Mazes and Monsters
What began as a fantasy role-playing game becomes much more. Looking for a place beyond the pressures of college life, four friends come together in the world of Maze and Monsters.
But when Jay Jay, Kate, Robbie, and Daniel decide to bring the game to real life, losing themselves in an actual maze, reality and fantasy become blurred, with tragic consequences.
Featured image: Philippe Halsman / Halsman Archive
