Cassidy Percoco reviewed The flirt by Booth Tarkington
Review of 'The flirt' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The Flirt feels a lot like Alice Adams, which means that if you liked the latter you'll be interested in the former, but at the same time, you might feel like you've taken this ride before. (The Flirt was, however, written almost a decade before Alice Adams.) Like the Adamses, the Madisons are on the outskirts of society, mixing with upper-middle-class families while they can barely afford upkeep on their run-down house; like Alice, Cora Madison is charming and given the best of everything by her parents while her brother sneers at her affectation of poshery.
The major difference between these two stories is that The Flirt is much more of a morality tale. Cora strings along a fiancée throughout the book, Richard Lindley, a good man who is unaccountably blind to her flimsiness, while flirting with other men she finds more interesting - and in contrast …
The Flirt feels a lot like Alice Adams, which means that if you liked the latter you'll be interested in the former, but at the same time, you might feel like you've taken this ride before. (The Flirt was, however, written almost a decade before Alice Adams.) Like the Adamses, the Madisons are on the outskirts of society, mixing with upper-middle-class families while they can barely afford upkeep on their run-down house; like Alice, Cora Madison is charming and given the best of everything by her parents while her brother sneers at her affectation of poshery.
The major difference between these two stories is that The Flirt is much more of a morality tale. Cora strings along a fiancée throughout the book, Richard Lindley, a good man who is unaccountably blind to her flimsiness, while flirting with other men she finds more interesting - and in contrast to Alice's steps toward reality and self-sufficiency at the end of her story, Cora instead responds to the loss of her interesting suitor (a con man) by quickly marrying a third party and getting out of town before the storm hits. Cora also has a second sibling that Alice lacks, a much more ethical and morally pure sister, Laura, who is silently and madly in love with Richard. In a denouement not unlike Mansfield Park's, Richard comes to realize that Laura is actually far superior to Cora in personality, and is very lovely when not standing next to her vivacious and angelic-looking sister. This isn't as effective emotionally as, for instance, Richard realizing this during one of the many instances where Laura is bashfully sitting with him while Cora flirts with someone else as though he's not there, but, as with Mansfield Park, it is a far more realistic ending.
Three stars, because Richard and Laura were a little too good, and I just wanted a bit more bang for this story.