Life at the Top

?ROOM AT THE TOP? by John Braine.

Priorities play a big part of our lives. That is one thing made clear in the novel ?Room at the top?, written by one of the famous British writers, John Braine in the early 1950s, and published in 1958.
It tells the story of a poor, 25 years old English man, the representative of a working class, Joe Lampton by name. Joe was brought up in the family of a good, very honest workman who would starve before he would sell himself for a handful of silver. His parents were always sure that money marries money and that a person from the working class should never think about a match with a rich, respectful partner.
Joe was left a war orphan as his parents died after Dufton city was bombed. His father and mother had gone to bed when Dufton?s one and only bomb dropped. The siren had sounded but it was unlikely that someone would take any notice, as Dufton simply wasn?t worth the trouble of raiding. So, Joe?s parents died instantly.
Joe was under wardship of his aunt Emily since those times. His aunt was very kind, tender and generous person. She loved Joe as her own son but she couldn?t understand his eagerness to reach the top of the world, to become rich and famous. Aunt Emily was convinced that people were earmarked since their birth and they could change nothing. If you are born poor, you?ll die poor.
Joe is an ambitious young man who has just moved from the dreary English factory town of Dufton and arrives in Warnley to take up a secure but poorly paid post in the Borough Treasurer's Department, trying to promote himself into the ranks of the wealthy. Joe felt angry with those people who had always been lucky, who had never known the reality of the cold bedroom, who had never had to worry about exams or a job or the price of new clothes.
Joe's movement from Dufton, the town where he has been brought up, to Warley has played a great role in his further life. It was not just a geographical move but also an attempt to claw his way to the top in the business world.
Having spent three years as a prisoner of war, he decides that he is owed more than slavery for his wartime duties and thus he seeks to break through the rigid provincial social structure of the industrial town of Warnley. He aspires to ?the top?, but the price of entry is his own soul, which he sells ?for a handful of silver.?
Convinced that ability is not the key to advancement, he sets his sights on marriage to Susan Brown, the daughter of a local industrialist and community leader, hoping to become a ?have? in the world of ?have ? nots?.
Along the way, he meets 10 years older but still attractive Frenchwoman, Alice Aisgill, the leading woman of the village theatre group. Joe takes advantage of the disastrous marital situation of Alice and before long, they are lovers. Alice falls in love with Joe. Beyond the passionate meetings, which she enjoys as much as he does, Alice also helps Joe to refine his social graces and increase his understanding and appreciation of the cultural arts.
Joe seems grateful for her contribution to his self-improvement but really has no long-term interest in her as he remains obsessed with reaching "the top" and continues to place his priorities on money and status.
Little by little, working out all his steps with due attention, Joe wins Susan?s heart and love. Susan is trustful like a little child. She knows kind-hearted, clever, wise, sincere, gentle and attentive Joe Lampton, but not an angry and mercantile young man, real heart breaker who will get what he wants at any price.
Finally, Joe obtains a position in Brown's company and begins his difficult journey to "the top" while including marriage to Brown's daughter Susan among his ultimate objectives.
When Susan returns from her father-induced exile, Joe seduces her, subsequently realizing that while he desires what Susan can provide (great wealth, power, and prestige), his love is for Alice. Joe, however, must pay for his ?crime? (as it turned out, Susan became pregnant).
When Susan becomes pregnant, her father attempts to bribe Joe, offering to set him up in business if he agrees never to see Susan again, and, when that fails, forcing him to marry Susan and agree never to see Alice again.
Deserted and heartbroken, Alice launches on a drinking bout that culminates in her death in a car accident. She is the most sympathetic character in the novel, largely because Joe exploits her so callously. As for Brown, "what you see is what you get": a class-conscious, hard-driving, no-nonsense capitalist. Unlike Joe, no need for dissembling. Brown is at "the top" and (by God) he intends to remain there. Susan is of great importance to Joe (and to her father, of course) but is of little importance to the novel's story line except as one of the ambitious goals, which motivate Joe. He really cares little for her as a person, one way or the other. Were she in his own social class, Joe would probably have little to do with her...except, perhaps, for occasional sexual gratification (for himself). At least Alice offered more than sex...she offered unconditional love. Only at the end of the novel does Joe begin to realize what he has gained by reaching "the top" and at what a cost.
After Alice is dead, Joe disappears, and after being beaten unconscious by a gang of toughs for making a drunken pass at a girl, he is rescued by Eva and Bob Storrs. Joe makes acquaintance with these people in the Theater where he has played.
Joe finally secures his place ?at the Top?, but the price he must pay for this is the death of Alice Aisgill and of the death of his "true and authentic self".
Joe finds himself caught in the web he has constructed, realizing too late that his freedom from social structures is not a function of money and status but of self, that before he can be outwardly free he must be inwardly free. His room at the top may be lined with gold, but the achievement of that position ensures not happiness but misery.
Once a wise man said: "We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years. We seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. We are selfish and we are full of small and squalid vices. And finally we?ll get what we deserve.?
John Braine's novel about Joe Lampton is a standout classic. His method of writing about what the main character is thinking, doing and reacting is superb! You can almost smell and feel his descriptions of what Joe senses, physically and emotionally , whether in Dufton or Warley.
You don't know whether to root for Lampton or to despise his personal blind ambition. An interesting, thought provoking book that delves into the quagmire of the British social class system and a range of human emotions - envy, lust, anger and love.