Tender Loving Rage

by Alfred Bester

With a title more appropriate to a paperback romance and an author whose reputation was made in an entirely different genre, this posthumous thriller by one of the stellar lights of the golden age of science fiction seems unlikely to find an audience. Although Bester died in 1987, the book seems, in both style and perspective, to have been written well before that, perhaps not too far beyond its late 1950s setting. Beautiful model Julene Krebs attracts the attentions of both a high-powered advertising executive and a prominent research scientist. The two men become friendly as a result of their mutual interest in the girl, and she in turn becomes involved with each. Meanwhile, Bester offers what is presumably intended as satirical commentary on the advertising industry in general and TV commercials in particular, via a stream of embarrassingly awkward conversations and repartee in a variety of settings. There's a threatening, shadowy figure lurking about, as well as intimations of a dark secret in Julene's past, but these matters are so submerged in the plodding story that they seem unimportant--at least until a wild, violent night on Fire Island, N.Y. That's followed by a hurricane, a kidnapping and a thoroughly unbelievable bit of melodrama. In the end, after Bester skirts around an appalling view of rape and its victims, love triumphs over all

261 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books.

Though successful in all these fields, he is best remembered for his science fiction, including The Demolished Man, winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953, a story about murder in a future society where the police are telepathic, and The Stars My Destination, a 1956 SF classic about a man bent on revenge in a world where people can teleport, that inspired numerous authors in the genre and is considered an early precursor to the cyberpunk movement in the 1980s.

AKA:
Άλφρεντ Μπέστερ (Greek)

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alfred Bester, known best for his science fiction, published two fiction books that were not sci-fi. One was a minor hit. This one wasn't published during the author's lifetime, and it is easy to see why. There are interesting elements, but it just doesn't come together well. The first half of the book sets up a sort of love triangle, and about halfway through the book it is discovered that the woman who the two main male characters love has a brilliant and unhinged stalker. Is there any other kind of stalker? From that point onwards, it becomes a sort of thriller.

The thing I found most interesting was a handful of coincidental elements it had with the television show "Mad Men." Written in the late 50s or early 60s, a large portion of it is set in the Madison Avenue advertising world. The first appearance of the stalker, he is masquerading as a suave fellow named Don Draper-Hudson. Don Draper, in the 1960s advertising world? Beyond that, though, there is no similarities, unless there is a climactic chase scene amidst parties and a hurricane on Fire Island.

Unfortunately, the book is a big old mess, so I'm not sure it's worth hunting it down to read it.