H. M. Pulham, Esquire

Book excerpt: A Harvard reunion prompts a Boston Brahmin’s search for meaning in this comedy of manners by the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Point of No Return. In preparation for the twenty-fifth reunion of his class at Harvard, Harry Pulham is asked to collect and edit the personal histories of his fellow alumni. A glance at the previous year’s class book tells him just how tedious the assignment will be: “I have been very busy all this time practising corporation law and trying to raise a family,” a typical entry reads. “I still like to go to the football games and cheer for Harvard.” Harry’s autobiography is almost indistinguishable from those of his classmates. From his career at a Boston investment firm to his marriage to childhood friend Kay Motford, he has always made the safe, familiar choice—with one exception. For a brief interlude after World War I, Harry joined an advertising agency in Manhattan and fell in love with a beautiful, independent woman unlike anyone he had ever met. A wholly unexpected future opened up for him in those few months, but when family obligations called him back to New England, the relationship came to a sudden end. Now, twenty years later, Harry believes that his story could not have turned out any other way. A clever satire that achieves heartbreaking poignancy, H. M. Pulham, Esquire is a masterpiece from the author declared by the New York Times to be “our foremost fictional chronicler of the well-born.”