Marjorie Morningstar (1958)

At 18, Marjorie Morgenstern is the proverbial New York Jewish-American princess on the cusp of womanhood. While she has in the back of her mind that she would like to become a stage actress, she is less certain about her personal future. While she has burgeoning sexual feelings for her boyfriend Sandy Lamm, a nice Jewish boy whom she is expected to marry eventually, she isn't sure if she truly loves him. She wants some time away to discover whether she should accept his marriage proposal; in doing so, she meets several wannabe-suitors who will enter, leave, and re-enter her life during her young-adulthood. The one she believes that she is truly in love with is Noel Airman, 14 years her senior, who is social director of South Wind, a summer resort in the Catskills, when they first meet. Much like Marjorie's chosen life path is against the tradition envisioned by her opinionated mother, Rose Morgenstern, who hopes that acting is just a phase and Marjorie will settle into the life of a homemaker and mother, Noel has taken a similarly-unconventional life path, bucking an envisioned professional life for one in the arts; he is adored as a genius by those at South Winds as he is writing a Broadway play. What those at South Winds do not see is Noel's time away from South Winds; he has a tendency to not finish what he starts, which might be one reason he never sees himself getting married. What Rose might find more egregious about Noel as Marjorie's potential husband is the fact that he turned his back on his Jewish heritage. As Noel contemplates settling into a more-conventional life with Marjorie, can the love they think they have for each other overcome these obstacles?