As I read more and more fiction, I am beginning to realise that for a novel to keep me engrossed, it needs to have a great beginning. I'm afraid I found this book just generally slow and I was completely unable to get into it.

I recently bought a new kindle after my old one broke. For some reason I was unable to download this title from the cloud onto my kindle, therefore I will be unable to review this title. I am sorry for any inconvenience caused

“You didn’t invent infidelity.”

The film version of Strangers When We Meet is one of my favourites. This 1960 film stars Kim Novak and Kirk Douglas as married (to other people) neighbours who meet and have an affair. The film is splendid, IMO, with terrific performances from the two main stars; it captures the nuances, excitement and agonies of an extramarital affair.

Now to the novel from Evan Hunter AKA Ed McBain …

Strangers when we meet

Architect Larry Cole, married to Eve, and the father of two little boys, lives in a modern suburban estate that he loathes. Early in Larry’s career, he won an architectural prize, but now, years later, the reality is that he designs ugly buildings and homes he dislikes but that fit the market tastes/demands. He has a loving, beautiful wife, but somehow … discontent creeps in, and then he meets Maggie, a gorgeous slightly younger married woman who lives in the same neighbourhood. Maggie is married to Don and has one son.

Is Larry’s discontent stoked by his meeting with Roger Altar, a successful writer and bachelor who employs Larry to build a home? Altar and Larry are the same age and Altar, a consummate bachelor, always has a fresh woman at his side, promptly discarded like a pair of old socks. There’s a synergy between the men, and there’s a subtle air of comparison of their lives.

When Larry meets Maggie, there’s an instant attraction, and Maggie, who’s no novice to infidelity, recognises the signs. Soon Larry and Maggie begin an affair which begins at a cheap run-down motel.

Larry is the novel’s focus here. In the midst of this passionate affair which begins to define his life and his career, he finds himself confiding in the writer Altar, whose cynical view of women and sexual relationships doesn’t help Larry much.

“I’ve got a closetful of manufacturer’s labels. Architect, Husband, Father, Son, Striver, Brooder, man! I sew the labels into my own clothes. but the suits never fit me. Underneath all the crap, there’s me! And I’m never really me, never the Larry Cole I want to be until I’m with –” he cut himself off, suddenly wary.

“Sure,” Altar said, “and then you fly, don’t you? Then you’re bigger and stronger and handsomer and wittier, aren’t you? Then you can ride your white charger against the black knight! Then you can storm the enemy bastions!”

Another confidante is Felix, a casual acquaintance who welcomes Larry to an “international fraternity” and who, guessing Larry’s secret advises caution. According to Felix, if your wife suspects “then you haven’t got a wife any more, you’ve got the New York branch of the FBI.” Once Felix realises how Larry feels about Maggie, he recommends dropping the affair as it’s too consuming.

Larry realises that Felix, butcher by trade, is a completely different person as a philandering husband. Felix is a “cynical boudoir philosopher” who becomes the type of man he’d like to be–not a butcher, but a suave seducer of women. And yet… even while Larry grasps this about Felix, he doesn’t grasp that Maggie also fills a need. Is Larry’s married life constricting? Or is Larry just stymied in his career? Does anyone ever end up with the sort of life they wanted or planned? Felix, who has a very low opinion of women, doesn’t believe in Great Love, but he believes that all married people have affairs.

“It’s a big soapy dishpan of boredom. That’s the truth. And no husband can understand that soapy dishpan. And a woman can’t explain it to another woman because they’ve all got their hands in that same soapy boredom. So all a man has to be is understanding.

Yes baby, I know, I know, you’ve got a miserable life, here’re some flowers. Here’s some perfume, here’s ‘I love you,’ take off your pants.’ Bang!”

This novel was published in 1958, and it oozes the shifting views towards sexuality. Straight to the punch: in parts, the novel has not aged well. This is clearly a novel which reflects its times in the very typical male attitudes of the towards women and sex. And that’s not a good thing. In fact, at times, I found myself wincing.

There are scenes when Maggie is telling Larry, “no, no,” for example, and Larry hears “yes, yes.” (Actually I’m not sure that we’re supposed to hear mixed messages.) There’s another scene which depicts Maggie’s sexual frustration when she greets her husband at the door, sans undies, but her ‘dirty talk’ (mild) turns him off. Finally Maggie tells Larry about her relationship with a young man named Buck. Maggie’s version of events is ludicrous so I’m glad that Larry called her on it.

Still…. in spite of its dated view of life, women and sex, the novel has a lot going for it, and I’m glad I read it. The timeless lure of the affair is very well portrayed. Larry is discontented with life, wasting his talent on projects he doesn’t care about. He’s looking at middle age, and yes … he’s bored. Maggie appears to fill the gaps. Suddenly his life is exciting and unpredictable, but the affair doesn’t solve anything and ultimately creates turmoil. Many scenes between Larry and Eve are pitch-perfect–the way in which Larry picks a fight with Eve for no reason, for example:

He felt anger full upon him now, and he thought, We’re going to have a fight, but he was helpless to stop the anger or the argument which he was certain would erupt around them, He didn’t even know why he was angry, and his inability to pinpoint the cause of his irritation made him angrier still.

One last point: Larry “found it impossible to conceive of anyone ever having an affair before the telephone was invented,” What would he make of cell phones? Have they made infidelity easier or more difficult?

Review copy/own a copy

I was apprehensive before reading this seeing that it was published in 1958 and being re-released, I'm assuming movie-related, however, despite the passage of time since it's publication, this novel was still relevant and relatable. Obviously, the story of affairs is a timeless one that will, unfortunately, continue in our society. I have to commend Hunter on his writing style and language, but this novel moved too slowly for me and honestly just frustrated me. Why does a happily married man with 2 wonderful children, a successful career, etc. need to be unfaithful? Why did Maggie enter into a major of convenience and security and then enter into an affair with another woman's wife? Of course, there are millions of reasons for those actions and then none at all, but the book wasn't powerful enough for me to overlook the negative aspects and focus on the positive.

I had a lot of interest after reading the synopsis, but really could not get into the storyline even halfway through. The pace was slow and took a while to build up, and the characters acted in a way that wasn't always to their personalities or just far-fetched.

A novel of American suburbia in the 1950s, this is very much a period piece, reflecting the attitudes and way of life of the time as it explores the lives of a group of close-knit, if not always sympathetic to each other, group of young marrieds in a newly built sub-division. Larry Cole and his wife Eve have a good marriage, and Larry is becoming increasingly sought after as an architect. But one morning when he takes his son to the school bus stop he meets Margaret and soon embarks on a torrid and passionate affair with her. It’s hardly a spoiler to say that it’s all going to end in tears, and although I could have done without the more graphic descriptions of their time together, overall it’s a compelling tale of love, marriage, infidelity and the longing for fulfilment. What I enjoyed more than the story itself, however, was the evocation of a particular time and place, which Hunter conveys with great skill and insight. To a contemporary reader the attitudes of the men towards the women are quite disturbing. At one point a young man and his date have to escape a group of thugs and he muses that “He had the sudden vision of himself being beaten up and Suzie getting raped. He knew this would represent no particular loss on Suzies’s part…..” , the implication being that as Suzie is no longer a virgin what’s a rape going to matter to her. And one of Larry’s neighbours, Felix, a particular kind of predatory male, states that “there was an empty chasm in a woman, and only a man could fill that chasm.” Life in the suburbs didn’t always live up to the American Dream for the women at least – but nor for the men either. To be fair, Larry isn’t quite as misogynistic but even so sees Margaret as more a conduit to his own self-fulfilment than as a person with her own needs, and Hunter’s attitude to her at the end seems to imply that she is little more than a sexual object. But all this is very interesting in its way and I enjoyed spending time with these almost exclusively unpleasant people and grateful that I didn’t have to do so in real life.

Larry and Eve have a contented, happy marriage. Parents to two young boys, they have settled into domesticity and, perhaps, a certain complacency. But they are happy. Evan Hunter makes that quite clear.

One morning, Larry spots Margaret at his son's bus stop. Lithe, blonde, and luscious looking, Larry feels a burst of lust so consuming that he decides he will have an affair with her. He comes onto her in an awkwardly predatory manner, and Maggie (as he calls her) soon decides that an affair with Larry is something she desires very much.

Unlike Larry's marriage, Maggie's is not based on love. She got married for safety and surety in a complete absence of sexual spark. It's easy to see why she's drawn to Larry, why, even, she convinces herself that she loves him. He is dashing and charming, and he is obsessed with her body and sexuality. Larry's motivation, however, comes down to simple want. His marriage has no ennui. He and Eve are sexually attracted to each other, even if perhaps they don't act on it all that often. He wants Maggie, though, and he makes sure he gets her.

Written in 1958, this book examines what happens when a man who seems to have everything he wants decides that he wants one more thing, something forbidden to him. Evan Hunter shows you the emotional fallout of Larry and Maggie's affair and its effects on their spouses. There is a scene, late in the book, in which Eve asks Larry if he's happy. It will break your heart. Eve admits to herself that she and Larry did not get married out of some great love, but as the years and children ensued, they did fall in love with each other. Larry's decision to be unfaithful has damaging repercussions.

You will not like Larry all that much, and you likely will loathe Maggie. I sure did. Whereas Larry allows lust to dictate his behavior, Maggie is far more emotionally mercenary. She manipulates and maneuvers, and you will wonder how Larry does not see this.

There are a couple of subplots at play, one involving a client of Larry's and the other a neighbor of his and Maggie's. Too much time is spent with the client and the house Larry designs for him. I suspect this is more of a generational decision because the client is a promiscuous man with a freewheeling lifestyle. He sort of represents Larry's id.

The ending is nothing short of disappointing. It's as if Evan Hunter did not know how to extricate Larry from the choices he made, so Hunter makes a very convenient decision, one that feels like a sell-out and a letdown.

This is sexy story, one that feels real - as if it could be happening in your neighborhood. Hunter makes you think about infidelity and marriage, and he makes you want to talk about it.

It’s one of those books that you continue to read “just one more chapter” until there is nothing left except the disappointment that comes with the book reaching its end.

I love old books. There's a bit of innocence in them that I've always enjoyed. Strangers When We Meet was originally written in the lat 50's. and sadly, it doesn't translate as well in modern times. This is a miserable story about unhappy people. We explore the moral rights and wrong of an affair. We look at the guilty parties and the innocent victims.

It clearly was progressive and shocking on its first release.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Evan hunter also known as the prolific crime writer Ed McBain, was one of the most influential popular novelist oa the second half of the twentieth century. This illicit love story is so real, natural and exiting that you cannot help be moved. And most important Hunter, as does his,criminous alter ego, McBain, knows how to plot and keep the story moving. Read this.

I have a soft spot for old black and white movies and books written in or about the 50s and 60s, so this book very much appealed to me.

What makes a good man who appears to have everything - a wife he loves, two young sons, a comfortable home and a career as an architect that he both loves and excels in - embark on an affair with a woman he sees at a bus stop one day? Both are married and have much to lose. As their steamy affair progresses we begin to understand that although neither of them can give the other up, neither has any intention of leaving their spouse. So, how long can their infidelity last before they get found out or worse?

This book is about infidelity, betrayal and much more. It is well-written, makes compelling reading and left me with an overriding feeling of great sadness. I will be reading more Evan Hunter novels soon.

Initially, reminded me of a less eloquent Updike, but became much more Ayn Rand as it went along.

I couldn't finish it; the 60s setting negated the main impetus of the story for me...

Originally written in 1958, there are undoubtedly some parts and outlooks on life and issues in Strangers When We Meet that have not travelled well in the 59 years since it was written, but that doesn’t take away from the story and the overall sadness of the situations portrayed in this book.

Larry Cole has it all; a prize winning career as an architect, his loving wife Eve and two small sons. But Margret Gault, just standing there at the children’s bus stop with her son is the sexiest woman he has ever seen. Something about her catches his eye and his libido. And so begins the affair.

This book is heartbreaking in its clean decisive dissection of an affair. It looks at the fallout from the affair on the innocent parties and the not so innocent. It is a cold and calculated decision to begin the affair based on nothing more than a lust for something that wasn’t right to lust over. It looks at the victim mentality and the predators actions. It looks at the moral rights and wrongs of continuing with such behaviour and the changes that it brings about in the adulterous person and the cruelty of what it does to the sinned against.

This is a powerful book that is filled with wretchedness and misery and yet reads easily and makes you want to turn the page to keep going. It examines the decisions and actions that produced this affair and it offers opportunities to right the wrongs often that are never acted upon. Perhaps the ending is a little too predictable in some regards; in others it is not and is shocking when delivered.

Powerful and wretched, it is still a book well worth reading.

Unfortunately I didn't finished this book. Written in 1958 the book has not aged well. The language is old-fashioned and the plot, which may have been risque in the 1950's, is sedentary. I found it really difficult to imagine the lives being portrayed.

I do not plan to read or review this title, as I have also written to Greta Shull

Wasn't at all what I was expecting. Couldn't finish this one.