Tom and Betsy Rath live in a rundown house in Westport, Connecticut in 1953. They have three children and money problems. Tom is 33 years old, a Harvard graduate, and works at a Manhattancharitable organization. Tom barely survived as an Army paratroop officer during World War II, having fought in both the European and Pacific combat theaters; he had an extramarital affair in Italy during the former. He has haunting flashbacks of the affair, as well as his combat experiences; he killed 17 men in combat, including an accidental killing of his friend with a hand grenade in the heat of battle. His stay-at-home wife knows only that Tom has somehow "changed" since the war. One day while reflecting on the inadequacy of his house, Tom runs into a friend who works at the United Broadcasting Corporation, a New York-based television network. This friend encourages Tom to apply for a new opening in public relations. Tom gets the job working for Ralph Hopkins, the top man at the network, an empire-builder surrounded by politicking yes-men. Hopkins is set to propose the establishment of national mental health services to a group of physicians and offer his own prestige and network toward that end. Tom must figure out how his boss can best present the proposal so that the learned doctors will rise in unison and appoint Hopkins to spearhead the campaign. Hired on a six-month probationary basis, Tom reports to a humorless game-player who rejects five different drafts of the speech and ends up substituting one of his own. Hopkins is satisfied, but Tom persuades him that the approach is all wrong, that it misrepresents Hopkins' qualifications to head the campaign. Tom's approach is more sensible and Hopkins is impressed. Additionally, Tom reminds Hopkins of his own son, who was killed in combat. In the end, Tom sees how his boss's marriage and family life have been ruined by overwork, so he turns down a high-pressure position involving travel in order to work normal hours and spend more time at home.
Subplots
The fraudulent scheme of the caretaker of Tom's late grandmother, who forged a will in an attempt to inherit the deceased woman's home
Hopkins' estrangement from his daughter, who quits school to elope with an undesirable man
Tom's adulterous behavior during the war resulted in a son conceived in Italy, whose mother suddenly contacts him to seek monetary support at a most inconvenient time. With no understanding of the horrors of war, Betsy becomes furious upon learning of this secret and becomes estranged from Tom. However, she comes to understand that mutual emotional support, not just mutual ambition, bind wife and husband.
Themes
The book deals with the ethos of the American Dream that was strong during the post-War '50s. The business suit is a symbol of that culture. The American aesthetic was that the gray flannel business suit came to represent middle-class success. A man wearing such a suit belonged to that ideal and the image of that culture.
Development
The book was largely autobiographical. It drew on Wilson's experiences as assistant director of the U.S. National Citizen Commission for Public Schools. The character of Ralph Hopkins, the high-ranking network executive, was based on Roy Larsen, Wilson's real-life boss at Time Inc..
Reception
The novel became a bestseller. "Man in the gray flannel suit" entered the popular vernacular and the symbol has continued to appear for decades in references of sociologists to America's "discontented businessman". Columnist Bob Greene wrote much later, in 1992, that "he title of Sloan Wilson's best-selling novel became part of the American vernacular—the book was a ground-breaking fictional look at conformity in the executive suite, and it was a piece of writing that helped the nation's business community start to examine the effects of its perceived stodginess and sameness." The book was re-issued in 2002 with a foreword by a contemporary author, Jonathan Franzen.
Film
The film that came out in April of the next year followed the success of the novel. Although the film became popular, critics gave it mixed reviews. Its length was sometimes brought into question but it was seen as a "tender and touching film" by The New York Times. Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones star. The film was directed by Nunnally Johnson. The film focuses on a man coping with domestic reality after the Second World War. Variety magazine held the director responsible for "miss the point of the book which made the flannel suit a symbol rather than just a garment."
Sequel
Nearly thirty years later, in 1984, Wilson released a sequel, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit II, picking up the story just eight years after the original novel with Tom Rath's story in 1963. The plot of the sequel concerns Tom's extramarital affair with a younger woman, which leads to his subsequent divorce and remarriage, as well as the death of his son in the Vietnam War. Unlike the original novel, the sequel was neither a critical nor a commercial success.
