Foreword
Along with a number of other institutions of dubious social value, the term "class warfare" was apparently invented by the redoubtable Karl Marx. In his studies of 19th century English society, Marx detected a deep and violent division between the "working class" and the "bourgeoisie." While western sociologists and political scientists have rejected much of the Marxian evaluation of society, the idea of class warfare has taken root in our contemporary thought, even in North America and Western Europe where communism itself is unpopular. The idea that certain segments are, or ought to be, at war with one another finds its way into presidential speeches, novels and television commentaries on an everyday basis.
What are the true social classes in conflict in twentieth century America? Author Peter Jensen believes that two classes have emerged in the post-war period and that there is deep and abiding hostility between them, a kind of social love-hate relationship. In place of the impoverished factory worker of Marx's day, today we have the welfare recipient. The introduction of welfare, Medicare and social security systems has created an entire class of families who are poor, but not starving. They tend to live in the same parts of the city, mingling with members of the underworld prostitutes, drunkards, pick-pockets and so forth. In these ghettos, a whole new life-style has emerged, bringing with it a new morality, new tastes, and new fashions. It is the world of the poor in rich America. But the welfare poor have one advantage which is denied to the rest of the country, and Mr. Jensen illustrates it clearly in this compelling new novel. The welfare poor still know how to live a talent which middle class America has forgotten. Unencumbered by jobs which take up time and energy, the welfare recipient has the leisure and just enough money to pursue the pleasures of the flesh. Sitting in his mansion, the rich industrialist of today is troubled by the notion that a man dwelling in a cold water flat in the slums just might be having more fun than he is.
Who is this other class? Author Jensen identified it for us clearly. We are not speaking of the traditionally wealthy like the Kennedys and the Rockefellers, or the industrial barons like John Paul Getty or Howard Hughes, since this class is declining in numbers and power as a result of intensive taxation. No, the novelist has focused his attention on what he believes to be the politically and socially dominant class in America today, that of the upper middle class executive suburbanite. These are not the mythological "very, very rich" so ably described by F. Scott Fitzgerald, but in comparison to the slum-dwelling welfare recipient, they are very rich indeed. Typically, the "executive suburbanite" lives outside the hustle-bustle of the city in an all-white neighborhood. The house is large and elegant, probably with a swimming pool in the back, and crammed inside with all the gadgets technology has devised for keeping people happy: color TV, stereophonic sound systems, automatic kitchen and exercise machines. What is lacking? Fun, perhaps sensuality, excitement, life?
This compelling novel traces the story of a girl who attempts to bridge the gap between these two social classes. In the end, inevitably, she fails, but even her failure is illustrative of the points Mr. Jensen is attempting to make. Married to a rising young business executive, Joan Caruthers has her own lower class view of the world, her own moral standards and her own theories on what makes life interesting. This is a richly sensual book and Joan's fatal flaw is sexual in nature; but sex is only one of the many things which ultimately compel her to return to her people!
Thomas Wolfe is famous for remarking that we can never go home again. In this profoundly exciting novel, Mr. Jensen is suggesting that perhaps home is something one can never really leave.
-The Publishers. Sausalito, California January, 1973