Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Do you remember the best summer of your life? New York City, 1945. Marjorie Jacobson and her best friend, Marty Garrett, arrive fresh from the Kappa house at the University of Iowa hoping to find summer positions as shopgirls. Turned away from the top department stores, they miraculously find jobs as pages at Tiffany & Co., becoming the first women to ever work on the sales floor--a diamond-filled day job replete with Tiffany blue shirtwaist dresses from Bonwit Teller's--and the envy of all their friends. Hart takes us back to the magical time when she and Marty rubbed elbows with the rich and famous; pinched pennies to eat at the Automat; experienced nightlife at La Martinique; and danced away their weekends with dashing midshipmen. Between being dazzled by Judy Garland's honeymoon visit to Tiffany, celebrating VJ Day in Times Square, and mingling with Cafe society, she fell in love, learned unforgettable lessons, made important decisions that would change her future, and created the remarkable memories she now shares with all of us.

Rating : - C+
Cute. That would be the best word to describe this short, particularly sweet memoir. Going into it, I was waiting for vast accounts of the inner workings of one of the most fantastic stores ever to exist. The tome is more character driven than tell-all, which I would assume stems from the era the author comes from (that is, polite and loyal). I could have done without the dozens of "Ohmygosh!"s that were sprinkled quite liberally throughout the narrative - it was distracting, irritating, and took away credibility from the writer. The naive charm still held me captive, though: I received a glimpse of a time where girls still wore gloves and hats, were polite and charming, and treated everyday as if it were a glamorous event. The backdrop of World War Two gave the book more depth, thankfully, for without it the story would have drooped from saccharine sweetness. The descriptions of the now-antiquated stores and sweetshops were divine, and the cameos from celebrities like Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland were quite nice, as well. (Watch out for the sub-plot with Yale...it felt like a forced dilemma for the main character and also quite unrealistic). All in all, I loved seeing New York as it never will be again, especially after 9/11. A lovely look inside a rare moment of time, this book will most definitely cheer you up. That's all it's really there for, I guess. Charming.