The Arrangement (1967 novel)
Encyclopedia
The Arrangement is a 1967 novel
published by Stein and Day
and written by Elia Kazan
telling the story of a seemingly successful Greek-American advertising
executive and magazine
writer living in an affluent Los Angeles
suburb
who suffers a nervous breakdown
due to the stress of the way in which he has lived his life – the "arrangement" of the title.
veteran who is the son of an Anatolia
n rug merchant. He has come to use the name "Eddie Anderson" in his career as a self-loathing advertising executive and the name "Evans Arness" in his second career as a muck-raking magazine reporter, the career in which he obstensibly takes pride (Lincoln Steffens
is his role model). His personal life is as confused as his professional life: to outsiders he is apparently happily married but is in fact a serial, and compulsive, adulterer
. His serial adultery ends when he begins a liaison with a female assistant at his advertising firm, Gwen Hunt; she soon becomes his exclusive mistress. He maintains his affair with her for months, secret from his wife Florence, until his adopted daughter is shown nude
photographs of him with his mistress discovered by a prying maid and she tells the maid to show them to Florence, which seems to lead to precipitate the crisis leading to Arness' nervous breakdowns and attempted suicide
. The rest of the novel concerns itself with the character's attempts to recover from this event and his inability to transition smoothly between the world of his mother, his dying father, and his brother which he had left behind in New York
after college but into which he is reinjected due to his father's declining health and eventual terminal illness, and his current, L.A.-based, life, and his attempt to find a new life in which he can be who he authentically is rather than who others desire him to be or whom he has sold people on his being. After several false starts, in which the newly "authentic" Eddie is arrested for indecent exposure
, burns down his parents' former home, is shot by a jealous boyfriend, and is committed to a mental hospital
, Eddie develops a quiet, contented life in Connecticut
as a liquor
dealer and settles down with Gwen.
; the main character, like Kazan, is a Greek-American and a political liberal who had once briefly been a member of the Communist Party USA
before becoming disillusioned with it in the era prior to World War II. The Arness character is also familiar with many lower-tier figures in the Hollywood film
industry, which is where Kazan had achieved his greatest fame. Kazan decreed that the work was entirely fiction; the character was considerably younger than Kazan, who had not been in combat in World War II.
Critical reaction was largely favorable, although some critics expressed surprise that Kazan would launch a career as a novelist in his late 50s. (In reality, Kazan had written a previous novel about a Greek immigrant and his friend, an Armenian immigrant, called America, America
and made it into a film.) John Barkham of Saturday Review stated "The theater's loss is literature's gain: Elia Kazan has written a striking novel." Life
was so effusive in its review that an excerpt from it became the blurb on the dust jacket of a later printing. Honor Tracy, writing in The New Republic
, stated, "It is impossible, in a short space, to give a work so rich, complex subtle its due..."
.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
published by Stein and Day
Stein and Day
Stein and Day, Inc. was an American publishing company founded by Sol Stein and his wife Patricia Day in 1962. Stein was both the publisher and the editor-in-chief...
and written by Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
telling the story of a seemingly successful Greek-American advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
executive and magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
writer living in an affluent Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
who suffers a nervous breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
due to the stress of the way in which he has lived his life – the "arrangement" of the title.
Plot
The Arrangement is the first-person story of Evangelos Arness, aka Evans Arness, aka Eddie Anderson, a second-generation Greek-American World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
veteran who is the son of an Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n rug merchant. He has come to use the name "Eddie Anderson" in his career as a self-loathing advertising executive and the name "Evans Arness" in his second career as a muck-raking magazine reporter, the career in which he obstensibly takes pride (Lincoln Steffens
Lincoln Steffens
-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....
is his role model). His personal life is as confused as his professional life: to outsiders he is apparently happily married but is in fact a serial, and compulsive, adulterer
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
. His serial adultery ends when he begins a liaison with a female assistant at his advertising firm, Gwen Hunt; she soon becomes his exclusive mistress. He maintains his affair with her for months, secret from his wife Florence, until his adopted daughter is shown nude
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
photographs of him with his mistress discovered by a prying maid and she tells the maid to show them to Florence, which seems to lead to precipitate the crisis leading to Arness' nervous breakdowns and attempted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
. The rest of the novel concerns itself with the character's attempts to recover from this event and his inability to transition smoothly between the world of his mother, his dying father, and his brother which he had left behind in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
after college but into which he is reinjected due to his father's declining health and eventual terminal illness, and his current, L.A.-based, life, and his attempt to find a new life in which he can be who he authentically is rather than who others desire him to be or whom he has sold people on his being. After several false starts, in which the newly "authentic" Eddie is arrested for indecent exposure
Indecent exposure
Indecent exposure is the deliberate exposure in public or in view of the general public by a person of a portion or portions of his or her body, in circumstances where the exposure is contrary to local moral or other standards of appropriate behavior. Indecent exposure laws vary in different...
, burns down his parents' former home, is shot by a jealous boyfriend, and is committed to a mental hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
, Eddie develops a quiet, contented life in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
as a liquor
Distilled beverage
A distilled beverage, liquor, or spirit is an alcoholic beverage containing ethanol that is produced by distilling ethanol produced by means of fermenting grain, fruit, or vegetables...
dealer and settles down with Gwen.
Reaction
The novel was seen by some as being partially autobiographicalAutobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
; the main character, like Kazan, is a Greek-American and a political liberal who had once briefly been a member of the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
before becoming disillusioned with it in the era prior to World War II. The Arness character is also familiar with many lower-tier figures in the Hollywood film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
industry, which is where Kazan had achieved his greatest fame. Kazan decreed that the work was entirely fiction; the character was considerably younger than Kazan, who had not been in combat in World War II.
Critical reaction was largely favorable, although some critics expressed surprise that Kazan would launch a career as a novelist in his late 50s. (In reality, Kazan had written a previous novel about a Greek immigrant and his friend, an Armenian immigrant, called America, America
America, America
America, America is a 1963 American dramatic film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, from his own book.-Plot:...
and made it into a film.) John Barkham of Saturday Review stated "The theater's loss is literature's gain: Elia Kazan has written a striking novel." Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
was so effusive in its review that an excerpt from it became the blurb on the dust jacket of a later printing. Honor Tracy, writing in The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
, stated, "It is impossible, in a short space, to give a work so rich, complex subtle its due..."
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
This novel served as a basis for Kazan's 1969 film, similarly titled The ArrangementThe Arrangement (1969 film)
The Arrangement is a 1969 film directed by Elia Kazan and based upon his 1967 novel of the same title.The Arrangement tells the story of a seemingly successful Los Angeles-area advertising executive of Greek-American extraction, Evangelos Arness who later takes on the name, "Eddie Anderson"...
.