“Max was a lover of dogs the way some men are indiscriminate lovers of women. Nothing turned his head more quickly than a dog trotting down the street or cutting through a backyard. Dogs could do no wrong; no amount of garbaging, rug pissing, or flea infestation could alter the course of Max’s true love.”
― Jon Cohen, Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger

My review:

Imagination is a powerful thing.

Are you a dreamer? Do you spend much time in your head? Do you imagine other worlds, have imaginary conversations in your heads with people?

Do you yearn?

If so..this enchanting little book maybe for you.

I do not really want to say to much about the plot. I went in knowing little, which is a good idea.

This book is about what is mentioned above. Imagination. memory . Love, fantasy. magic, other worlds in which exists things nobody except the dreamer would think about.

And it all manifests itself in Max.

Max is a quirky, fun, off beat lawn care specialist. Lawn care...not a job all people would love but Max loves it. With passion.

And he loves his dog Bilky. His wife, Nellie. His kids. His best buddy. Yes..Max is a good man. And Max loves.

But Max is one of those people..you know the type. The ones who are always in their head. The type who see the world and what's in it, just a tad bit differently.

I am one of those people. I bet many of you are. Readers in general tend to have that aspect to them.

Max lives in two realities. The real world and his imaginary one, filled with luminous ponderings, conversations with John F Kennedy and many moments where he spaces out, lost in day dreams.

But what happens when imagination coincides with reality?

Max has never cheated on Nellie. NEVER! They have a great marriage.

Until the beautiful stranger comes along.

She glides out from the Rose Bushes. She billows out from the sea. Who..who..is this exquisite, mysterious and stunning stranger and what does she want with Max?

I am stopping here.

The book is odd..like Max. It is also lovely and ethereal. And there is a Whimsical quality about this book. It is pretty short (although longer than a Novella) but the characters are etched in humility and are so exquisitely drawn. And we love Max. And Bilco. And Nellie. It is amazing how this book has such a timeless feel. It felt like it could have been written last year..or one hundred years ago.

Of coarse there is more going on besides the Beautiful stranger. And trigger warning: Max's wife is a nurse and her days are described so there will be scenes in hospitals with patients who do not survive. I myself skimmed those scenes. They are not for everybody and I am one they were not for. You can still read the book as these scenes do not dominate and can be skimmed over.

Now I must warn of spoilers as I want to discuss the end. Before I do so, let me have the honor of recommending this enthralling little book that is packed full of sparkling words and atmosphere, and filled with love and dreaming and simple beauty. I think many may love this.

END SPOILERS:

The end has been discussed. My opinion is..we are not meant to know. More on that in a minute.

My first thought was that she was Aphrodite. If you are familiar with Mythology, you know Aphrodite, rose from the sea. That scene in MLATBS reminded me of the stories of Aphrodite.

But I am not so sure. I also started shifting my opinion feeling that she was a lovely siren whom Max summoned with his mind.

Or she was simply a product of Max's very active imagination.

Was she real? I believe so. To many people saw her. Unless this was one long dream (and I am not ruling out that possibility) she would have had to exist.

Or maybe not. LOL. There is so much about the world we do not know. I think it comes down to what the doctor told Nellie: there are things and people in other worlds we cannot begin to imagine. But Max can.

Maybe we are not meant to know what happened. Because there is so much about the Universe we cannot and do not understand.

So, to sum up..a strangely beautiful and beguiling book that is most definitely different. I will not forget Max, Nellie and Bilco anytime soon. ( )

I recalled this title but had no memory of the book other than that it was about a romance. That and that it is on a list dated 29 June 2008 of books mentioned in my Journals, which in turn recorded mentioning the book in 1993.

Now I've reread 'Max Lakeman and the Beautiful Stranger', here at the end of 2020 in an ebook. Except for the first meeting of Max and Mrs. Zeno early in the text, and that it had been a feel-good book. As I reread, nothing came back into memory; it was a revisit of a feeling and not of remembrance.

This second reading showed me a sweet but sort of awkward book, full of abrupt changes in viewpoint and unexplained changes in characters. There are scenes of realism and ones that ask for a belief in magic.

All in all, the reading experience has been a good one. Page by page, I wanted only the best for Max and Nelly, and Jon Cohen delivered. ( )