The Education of Oscar Fairfax

September 4, 1995
In this sedate and diverting fictional memoir, novelist-of-manners Auchincloss (Tales of Yesteryear) replays his favored themes: gentlemanly coping in New York society, practicing law, enjoying one's money, inspecting others' foibles. A sense of literary tradition permeates the narrative as characters revel in beloved authors: the Greeks, Wordsworth, Proust, Henry James, Edith Wharton. The title echoes the 1907 classic, The Education of Henry Adams, to point up an uneasy fit between upper-class schooling and the modern world. In chapters doubling as exemplary character studies, Oscar Fairfax, Yale grad and Wall Street attorney, fondly recalls his mentors--his Episcopal bishop grandfather and his academic masters--and how he adapted their quaint lessons to his own needs and passed his own wisdom on to chosen novices of the next generation. In the chapter ``My Son, My Son,'' Fairfax fosters his own child's growth from shy boyhood to happy marriage. Another, ``A Man's Reach,'' begins in elitist Bar Harbor, Maine, where Fairfax befriends the bright but resentful Max Griswold, teenage son of a hardworking hairdresser, whom he later sends to Yale and guides through life's mazes. Max's story typifies one Auchincloss model, that of the youth who rejects, then appreciates, society's values. ``The Unhappy Warrior'' first tracks the rise of the able but philandering lawyer who marries Fairfax's sister, then shows the woman's adjustment. Few surprises are offered here, but much satisfaction is generated as Auchincloss, in his 38th book of fiction, reliably affirms his craft, depicting the maturation of character through time.

August 1, 1995
Born into privilege at the turn of the century, Oscar Fairfax slides gracefully through life from St. Augustine's (a prestigious Episcopal school for boys) to Yale to Paris, Washington, and New York as a valued member of his father's law firm. True, there are little crises along the way--the friend who betrays a trust, the protege who goes against Oscar's principles, the son who is so principled he almost leaves the firm--but by and large Oscar's "education" is hardly a matter of earth-shattering revelations. It's gently incremental, like the novel itself; Oscar's life proceeds episodically in "chapters" that could almost stand alone as short stories. In the end, Oscar comes off as a man working slightly against the grain of his conservative background, an enlightened snob who takes up good causes for more than glory. "Do I do it to flatter myself that I am at least a good man?" he wonders, and the charm of this character--and of the novel as a whole--is that the answer to that question is not so clear-cut. An urbane, civilized read that Auchincloss fans will enjoy. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 7/95.]--Barbara Hoffert, "Library Journal

Starred review from September 1, 1995
Auchincloss, that most prolific and polished of authors, has focused on short stories lately, making his new novel especially welcome. True to form (and what a perfect form it is), Auchincloss' magnetic protagonist, Oscar Fairfax, is a blue blood, New York lawyer, but he has a literary bent, makes a hobby of studying people, and has raised listening to a fine art. We first meet Oscar as a young man curious about the divergent views of his skeptical father and his maternal grandfather, the Episcopal bishop. In each succeeding chapter, Oscar reaches a new stage of life and becomes infatuated with a new personality, whether it's a professor overly obsessed with Greek nudes, a princess telling tales about Proust, a fellow attorney, or the promising but penniless son of a hair stylist Oscar befriends while summering in Maine. Each time Oscar gets involved in someone's life, he engages in some elegantly candid conversations, acquires wisdom, and does good deeds. As Auchincloss charts his hero's education, he considers human nature in all its arenas, from religion to law, love, war, and art. ((Reviewed Sept. 1, 1995))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1995, American Library Association.)