Just couldn't make this one happen.

Not only a wicked and relentless send-up of American Society Folk and their obsession with status, but an educative, albeit exhausting, primer on psychopathy. Powell narrates every character’s inner monologue of judgments, duplicitous thoughts, and strategic manipulative behavior. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be inside the mind of somebody who perpetually pretends in order to gain something. Being inside the minds of a whole book of people was draining, but at times amusing. I was grateful that Powell gave some back story of the childhood hurts that resulted in the decisions to do whatever it takes to win some imagined thing or relationship or status — no matter how far from truth and sanity and a real possibility of happiness it requires people to go. A social satire, sometimes a light comedy, this book masterfully builds to juxtapose the relentless shallowness of most of the characters with the very real looming Nazi regime and WWII. Ultimately, despite the laughs and satire, the story made me sad.

3.5 stars An atmospheric, witty tale of backstabbing New Yorkers that sometimes stumbles over its own cleverness.

A Time To Be Born is a great depiction of the upside down priorities of the New Yorker upper Class. Dawn Powell writes with great humor and wit, I really loved the book.