Inevitable

INEVITABLE is based on true events although not memoir, is a literary love story about an urbane May-December relationship that ignites into a passionate affair reminiscent of Lucinda Franks’ memoir of her life with Robert Morgenthau; it is written in a style reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s compassionate realism. The novel is structured as a he-said-she-said narrative in alternating chapters, giving the reader both sides of the story as it unfolds.

New York in the 1960s is the lavish backdrop for a chance encounter between a 20-year-old Amerasian college student and a European businessman more than twice her age. Sandy, coming off a failed relationship, is wary of this man’s insincerity, although she is attracted to him because she has never met anyone like him. Peter, thrice married and separated, is looking for nothing more than a beautiful, warm body to bed and show off to his clients. Except for the fact that he is a devoted father, he is almost a cliché for the heartless seducer. But he quickly becomes enthralled with Sandy who struggles to resist his charms. Products of their respective times – he from pre-WW II Hungary, she from post WWII New York – they discover in their age- and cultural differences an undeniable attraction, at first only physical, but then also intellectual and emotional.

Their relationship develops in conflict: they must deal with Peter’s not-quite-ex wife, with Sandy’s dysfunctional family, and with a disapproving society. They battle each other, too: he wants to dress her in high fashion, but she prefers beatnik jeans and floppy sweaters; she is committed to anti-Vietnam War protests and Civil Rights rallies, while he dismisses her political activism as youthful indiscretion.

During an unprecedented Blackout of the entire East Coast, when New York City is plunged in total darkness, a kindness he does for a neighbor is misinterpreted as infidelity. The Blackout becomes a metaphor for their inability to see one another clearly.

They live out the issues of the sixties, especially the burgeoning Women’s Movement, dealing with problems of birth control, abortion, and women’s sexuality. In the end, Peter and Sandy understand that although their love enriches them, they must also decide if it can endure the seeming opposite paths they are taking: he towards a comfortable retirement and she towards a new career and profession.
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