STRANGERS ON THE SHORE

by Douglas Kiker ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 6, 1959

All God's chillun got problems, even in the U.S. peacetime Navy. Tom McCollough, a promising young lieutenant, is married to willful, immature Lauralee who resents it when they are forced to separate, resents their child Robbie, and frequently goes to sulk on the Pennsylvania estate of her parents, Martin and Louise Highsmith, who constantly bicker about money, among other things. When she finds herself pregnant, she has an abortion, and Tom begins to think about divorce. Caroline Sherman, the attractive, intelligent daughter of Tom's superior officer at the base, has a brief fling and discovers she doesn't love Thayer Edwards, a young flier, an hour before her wedding. Tom persuades her to go through with it, and very soon Thayer is killed in an accident. Tom and Caroline comfort each other, and when Lauralee commits suicide---in despair because, in addition to her other troubles, she is sexually involved with her father---Caroline flies to Italy, where Tom's ship has been sent, and they get married... Unrealistic situations handled with a certain amount of wooden ability. Scrape off the surface varnish and you find the contemporary version of, soap opera, humorless and unconvincing.

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1959

Categories: FICTION