Customer Reviews

NEVER LOVE A STRANGER

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a typical old Robbins ballad, tracing the life of Frankie Kane as he grows up to face the world. Frankie is human and sensitive and quite normal for a hero.

The love story with Ruth has an air of innocence about it and Robbins expertly developed the plot to a nice crescendo. I liked all the characters mainly because they are human and sensitive and act in a way which common people do. Highly recommended for Robbins fans.

"Never Love A Stranger" is a wonderful yarn which contains all the ingredients for a mass market winner. As Robbins' first novel, ( first published in 1947 can you believe) it is far less explicit than his later work but this is not a disappointment. The characters are drawn vividly and their world and lives ring true. Fans of this book should also check out his 1950's tile "Never Leave Me" which is similarly satisfying.

While working as an executive at Universal Pictures in the mid 1940's, Harold Robbins was dismayed by the latest property purchased by the studio to turn into a motion picture. Robbins, who had no experience as a writer, told a colleague that he thought he could write a better story than what the studio had purchased. The colleague bet Robbins could not. A wager was set. In 1948, Alfred A. Knopf published Robbins' first novel, Never Love a Stranger. The book soon raised the ire of censorship groups and became a best seller and Robbins would go on to become one of the best selling authors of the 20th Century.

Never Love a Stranger is the story of Francis "Frankie" Kane, a young man first raised in a Catholic orphanage in New York City 's Hell's Kitchen then later adopted as a teenager by his Jewish Aunt and Uncle. Before he finds security with his middle class family, Frankie becomes street smart working a series of odd jobs, most notably as a numbers runner for one of the local racketeers.

The novel is structured between brief observations about Frankie told from the point of view of childhood friends, who have gathered to reminiscence about Frankie, and longer sections narrated by Frankie as he relates the story of his life. The book climaxes with a showdown between childhood best friends Frankie, now a successful racketeer, and Jerry, a politically ambitious District Attorney (and a character with more than a passing resemblance to Thomas Dewey, a New York Politician who made a name for himself as a racket buster and would later become Governor of New York and two time Republican Party nominee for President). The first and last parts of the book are reminiscent of the gangster and socially conscious movies produced by Hollywood in the 1930's, most notably Manhattan Melodrama and the gangster pictures of Warner Bros. Though these sections of the book break no new ground, the story is vividly told and quite entertaining with a good mix of toughness, a feeling of camaraderie and conflicty amongst the main characters, and sentimentaility.

This being a Robbins book, a raw sexuality courses its way through the book. Though the sex scenes are not as graphic as what he would later become famous for, Robbins does inject a strong sexual current in the book, from the innocent teen age courting rituals of Frankie and his high school steady Janet to the low down and ultimately degrading scenes of prostitution depicted later. What is especially notable is Robbins' frank depiction of interracial sex, which might have been quite shocking for some readers back in 1948, and perhaps for some even now.

But to me, the heart of the book is the middle section where Frankie must eke out a living at the depth of the Great Depression. When I first read the book as a teenager, I had an awareness of the historical time period, but Robbins is able to vividly describe the desperation and poverty of the period and it makes an emotional impact on the reader. In this passage, Frankie struggles to find work when there are few jobs to be found and is grateful to land low paying jobs a grocery store delivery boy or an emergency job shoveling snow for the city of New York . As he barely makes it by, Frankie befriends an African American family living up in Harlem, who have even less opportunities than he does, encounters a young wife who offers her body to him as she doesn't have money to pay the grocery bill as her husband has been out of work, and finds a social outlet with a Communist social club led by a thoughtful, charismatic idealist. Racism, poverty and yet simple humanity are on full display on this part of the book and Robbins is able to capture the turmoil of the times in this section. It is in this regard that Never Love a Stranger is most valuable to a reader today as it offers a window to what life was like for those struggling to lead dignified urban lives in New York City .

Never Love a Stranger is not great literature, but it's a lustily and entertainly told tale, written in Robbins' trademark plain English that does the job of telling the story and setting us directly into the millaeu of the characters as well as their most direct thoughts, wants and desires. Harold Robbins won his bet in 1948 and the bet continues to pay off for any reader who picks up this book.

Harold Robbins books are written beautifully and most definitely page-turners, each and every one of them. Never Love a Stranger was the first novel I ever read at the age of 14. That was over thirty years ago, and the story still remains vivid in my mind, which speaks for itself. A brilliant writer who's work will be sadly missed.

Harold Robbins books are perfect television. They're distracting and you develop a morbid fascination for the lives he unfolds before you. Never Love a Stranger is no different. My first Robbins novel, I was surprised by how involved I got in Frankie Kane's life... Robbins is very careful to make sure that his characters are not perfect angels. You can't love any one of them completely, but you also can't find them altogether evil or contemptible. Although Frank Kane is a dirty double-crossing guy, you can't help but root for him and cheer when he succeeds. The author doesn't have much talent for describing surroundings etc, but his character development is truly gifted. If you like Robbins, this is a must-read.

Lengthy, involving saga of racketeer Francis Kane was written in 1947 and is consequently less explicit than his later works. A classic drama which contains all the ingredients of a mass market winner - romance, suspense and tragedy. It was competently filmed in 1958 and starred John Drew Barrymore.

This is absolutely the worst novel I have ever read. I had to check the copyright date several times since the dialogue was so stilted and terminology was so dated. I finished the book, hoping that eventually it would get better. It didn't... I can only hope that Harold Robbins writing improved with his subsequent novels.

It's been said that while working for Universal Pictures, Harold Robbins didn't like the movies they produced and made a bet that he could write a novel that was better than the ones Universal bought the movie rights for. If the story is true, the result was this, his first novel. And if the story is true, I'd say he did a good job. In "Never Love a Stranger", Robbins proves he can do more than write sex scenes. He's created some strong chracters, especially the hero, Francis Kane, and a very involving story. Definitely recommended. Strong 4 star rating.

The book was also made into a movie starring John Drew Barrymore and Steve McQueen, see Never Love a Stranger.