When Harold Robbins’ Never Love a Stranger was published in 1948, it became a bestseller. Robbins hit upon a winning combination of elements to draw readers into his story, that he would go on to repeat multiple times in the future. “Power, sex, deceit, and wealth: the four main ingredients to a successful story,” he was quoted as saying. Of course, not all members of the public were pleased with Robbins racy use of sex in his first novel, and Never Love a Stranger was banned under pornography restrictions in the city of Philadelphia. Robbins and his publisher sued the city and won. In his decision, the judge proclaimed, “I would rather my daughter learn about sex from the pages of a Harold Robbins novel than behind a barn door.”For me, Never Love a Stranger gets filed under the category of “guilty pleasure.” The plot follows the life of Frankie Kane, a street-wise orphan who scraps his way to the top of a criminal empire during the Great Depression. I listened to the story on audiobook as narrated by the incomparable Will Patton, who lifts this glorious piece of tripe to a place wholly beyond its station. Patton has obvious fun with the novel’s terse, Cagneyesque main character, and the reader can’t help but enjoy it, too. If you are bothered by strong and obvious 1930s gender stereotypes and scenes of violence in the tone of “smacking a moll for getting wise,” steer clear of this novel. Otherwise, you are in for some dialogue that will have you chuckling in your recliner. I knew that I had reached a new level of noir ecstasy, when at the end, the book provided this nugget of sap: [note: virtually nothing is lost in reading it, as plot always comes secondary to tone]She looked at me. Her face had grown very pale. “Loved you?” she asked. “I’ve loved you so much ever since we were children that at night I couldn’t sleep for the wanting of you, that when we didn’t know where you were I would dream about you, that all these last months I was longing for you to take me -- I wanted your child inside me under my heart.” Her voice was strained and shaking with emotion. “That’s why I won’t bargain with you, Frankie. That’s why I’m not going to marry you.”tI crushed my cigarette out in the tray and took her by the shoulders roughly, squeezing my fingers into her arm. She made no sound, just looked up into my face. t“You stupid little fool!” I was raging mad. I could feel the pulse pounding in my forehead. “Maybe that’s the way it started, but can’t you see what I’ve done is for you -- that what I’ve thrown away has been for you? Don’t think I couldn’t have cleaned up this mess if I didn’t want to. I had a dozen places in the United States I could have gone to and operated from, and they never would have been able to touch me. I didn’t have to quit. I quit because of you. If it weren’t for the way I felt about you, I would have beat this the same way I beat everything else that got in my way; I’d have ruined Jerry’s career as I could have.t“You were the only reason I threw in the towel -- because I fell for the line you gave me. Maybe I always knew deep inside you were right, but it was for you that I did it.t“I didn’t make any bargain with you. I’ve turned my life inside out for you. I’ve traded a fortune for you, I’ve traded a loaf of bread for a pie in the sky, steak and potatoes for an ideal. And if you still think I don’t love you, baby, you can go to hell!” I was fully prepared to give the story three stars, but felt this exchange was worth an additional star. I you dare read this, I highly recommend the audiobook.
The second time around . . . I first read NEVER LOVE A STRANGER as a teenager about 40 years ago during what might be called my first "Harold Robbins phase," although I've re-read several of his books again during the intervening years, such as THE CARPETBAGGERS, 79 PARK AVENUE and WHERE LOVE HAS GONE.This was Harold Robbins's first novel, published in 1948, and while there are no graphic descriptions sex, enough is implied that the reader gets the idea (unlike Robbins's later books, which contained far too much information!).What was evident in this novel was Robbins's gift as a storyteller - concise, sometimes gritty prose, strong characterizations, and narrative drive - after a slow beginning, the story moves.Robbins always maintained that NEVER LOVE A STRANGER was autobiographical, that, like his protagonist, Frankie Kane, he had been raised in a Catholic orphanage only to find out later that his origins were Jewish. It made for a good story, but, as was eventually discovered, it was, in fact, just a story. For some reason Robbins preferred it to the truth, which was that he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants, raised in Brooklyn by his father (a pharmacist) and stepmother. What Robbins did have in common with Frankie was an innate and powerful drive to succeed, which matched the powerful narrative drive of his best novels.4/14: NEVER LOVE A STRANGER takes place over two decades, beginning (after a short prologue in which, like Dickens's David Copperfield, the central character is born) in 1925 and ending after the close of World War Two. This book has a fine feeling for atmosphere and character - it was written, of course, back when Robbins put some thought and effort into both, before he became what's now known as a "Brand-Name Author." Robbins could accomplish quite a bit with a few concise, down-to-earth sentences; this is a gritty story, and his prose is suitably unadorned and unpretentious Legend has it that NEVER LOVE A STRANGER was written as the result of a bet between Robbins and a co-worker at Universal, where Robbins was working as a reader - he supposedly tossed aside a book the studio had just paid a tidy sum for and said "I could write a better book than than!" The co-worker bet him $100 that he couldn't. NEVER LOVE A STRANGER was the result. The 'legend,' of course, was circulated by Harold Robbins, and who knows? It may actually be true. The book was published by Alfred A. Knopf, whose list featured many Pulitzer Prize-winners and highly-regarded 'literary' authors - Knopf took on the book at the recommendation of his son, who was impressed by its combination of raw sexuality and humanity. Alfred Knopf was never very proud of his association with Robbins or with another writer he had little respect for, Irving Wallace (he referred to them as 'hacks') and never regretted their departure from Knopf, despite the fortunes both subsequently earned for Simon & Schuster (Knopf was originally to publish THE CARPETBAGGERS, but was so disgusted by it that he let Robbins out of his contract, as I recall).
What do You think about Never Love A Stranger (1993)?
The first Harold Robbin’s book that I have read was The Adventurers. It has very interesting plots and defined characters in this novel and it was like watching a movie or a TV series. But it is Robbin’s first novel Never Love a Stranger that I read later that ranked higher in my list. Maybe because I find the courageous and passionate story of the protagonist Francis “Frankie” Kane more interesting than Diogenes Alejandro Xenos (or Dax), the tragic revolutionary hero of The Adventurers. A few things stood out for me in Never Love a Stranger. One is the way Frank works his way up, from his meager beginnings as a Jewish orphan, choosing the wrong side of the law to make a name for himself. He has this innate and powerful drive to succeed, in spite of the harsh realities in his world, racism, and living in the fast lane in the New York’s gangland. The difficulty of fitting in with antagonistic world and the corresponding price to you make the grade is the sense you get after reading this book.
—Neyo
