Golden Boy

This is one of Rosemary Friedman's best-loved novels. High-flyer Freddie Lomax is vice-chairman of a city bank. Popular and sociable, others are drawn to the magnetic field of his charm. Utterly without warning he is given two hours to clear his desk and finds himself joining the ranks of the middle-aged unemployed. His confidence that a new job will appear proves unfounded and with his self-esteem in tatters he takes his frustrations out on his wife. After reaching rock bottom and attempting to take his own life, Freddie befriends Becky, an abused adolescent patient in the psychiatric clinic to which he is referred, and through helping her finds his own salvation and saves his marriage.