With Gently Smiling Jaws by Shirley Maddock (1963)

A young woman seeks independence in New York

Fair Condition – heavy cover, spine and edge wear visible.

Catherine Willis wants a life beyond the future her family expects: marriage, children and the quiet surrender of her ambitions. Determined to write, act and find a place in television, she moves into a tiny New York apartment wedged between a funeral parlour and a dry cleaner. Around her are people with equally fragile hopes, struggling against poverty, loneliness and the compromises demanded by the city. Shirley Maddock’s novel follows Catherine’s attempt to remain independent while the world meets aspiration with gently smiling jaws. Written with a New Zealander’s eye on life abroad, the story explores ambition, class and the emotional price of trying to become someone on your own terms in a place that can consume dreams as quickly as it creates them.