Wives and Lovers

by Margaret Millar

Novel set in California. The book flap "This novel shows, sometimes with biting humor, sometimes with warm compassion, how extraordinary the lives and loves of those around us can be."

Genres: Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Mystery, Modern

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm) was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer. Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto. She moved to the United States after marrying Kenneth Millar (better known under the pen name Ross Macdonald). They resided for decades in the city of Santa Barbara, which was often utilized as a locale in her later novels under the pseudonyms of San Felice or Santa Felicia.

Millar's books are distinguished by sophistication of characterization. Often we are shown the rather complex interior lives of the people in her books, with issues of class, insecurity, failed ambitions, loneliness or existential isolation or paranoia often being explored with an almost literary quality that transcends the mystery genre. Unusual people, mild societal misfits or people who don't quite fit into their surroundings are given much interior detail. In some of the books we are given chilling and fascinating insight into what it feels like to be losing touch with reality and evolving into madness. In general, she is a writer of both expressive description and yet admirable economy, often ambitious in the sociological underpinnings of the stories and the quality of the writing.

Millar often delivers effective and ingenious "surprise endings," but the details that would allow the solution of the surprise have usually been subtly included, in the best genre tradition. One of the distinctions of her books, however, is that they would be interesting, even if you knew how they were going to end, because they are every bit as much about subtleties of human interaction and rich psychological detail of individual characters as they are about the plot.

Millar was a pioneer in writing intelligently about the psychology of women. Even as early as the '40s and '50s, her books have a very mature and matter-of-fact view of class distinctions, sexual freedom and frustration, and the ambivalence of moral codes depending on a character's economic circumstances. Her earliest novels seem unusually frank. Read against the backdrop of Production Code-era movies of the time, they remind us that life as lived in the '40s and '50s was not as black-and-white morally as Hollywood would have us believe.

While she was not known for any one recurring detective (unlike her husband, whose constant gumshoe was Lew Archer), she occasionally used a detective character for more than one novel. Among her occasional ongoing sleuths were Canadians Dr. Paul Prye (her first invention, in the earliest books) and Inspector Sands (a quiet, unassuming Canadian police inspector who might be the most endearing of her recurring inventions). In the California years, a few books featured either Joe Quinn, a rather down-on-his-luck private eye, or Tom Aragorn, a young, Hispanic lawyer.
Sadly, most of Millar's books are out of print in America, with the exception of the short story collection The Couple Next Door and two novels, An Air That Kills and Do Evil In Return, that have been re-issued as classics by Stark House Press in California.

In 1956 Millar won the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, Best Novel award for Beast in View. In 1965 she was awarded the Woman of the Year Award by the Los Angeles Times. In 1983 she was awarded the Grand Master Award by the Mystery Writers of America in recognition of her lifetime achievements.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finished: 12.10.2018
Genre: novel
Rating: C-
#CanBookReview
Conclusion:
Not my cup of tea....
I expected a CF plot and got
a long story about divorce, marriage, a secret affair.
I skimmed the book....reading the first sentence in
the paragraphs...didn't miss a beat.

[Lawrence FitzGerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Millar writes with a lot of psychological insight and it was a bit surprising that Wives and Lovers doesn't succeed as well as her mysteries. Perhaps the ensemble of characters diminished the focus and made the "story" a bit diffuse. I can't remember an immersive read that did not have a good story at its heart. Perhaps that is the ultimate criticism of Wives and Lovers.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this surpassed Beast in View by far. If I didn't have a bad shoulder, I would retype a great many passages that illustrate Ms Millar's stunning insight into her characters, which is rendered in a deft and often humorous manner. Although this is a stretch, she reminds me of Trollope, in that she seems to inhabit her characters and moreover, to view them in an unsparing yet sympathetic way. Is that possible? I have discovered that in Ms Millar's case, it certainly is.

[Andrew Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Millar was best known for her mystery and suspense novels. Wives and Lovers, published near the height of her career in 1954, is somewhat of a departure. The story takes place in Channel City, a thinly veiled version of Santa Barbara where Millar lived with her husband, mystery writer Ross MacDonald.

If you come to this this book expecting a hook and an immediately engaging plot, you'll be frustrated. Wives and Lovers is set of interwoven character studies and a sociological portrait of a fairly wealthy small city in mid-century California. The value of the book lies in Millar's exceptional depth of insight, the richness and complexity of her characters, and the eloquence and grace of her writing. You have to slow down to read this one, and it's well worth it.

The primary characters are Gordon Foster, the dentist; his assistant Hazel Anderson; Hazel's ex-husband, George; Gordon's wife, Elaine; Gordon's lover, Ruby; and Hazel's housemate Ruth. The book also includes a number of richly drawn minor characters, including the boardinghouse landlady, Carrie Freeman, and the Superior Court Judge, Anton Bowridge. With the exception of the older Bowridge and the young Ruby, all of the characters are middle-aged, and all are working through the adjustments of midlife, recalibrating hopes and attitudes after finding the lives they had expected didn't pan out.

Mrs. Freeman's attitude at the arrival of her new tennant, Ruby, sums up the weariness and wariness many of the middle-aged characters are struggling against: "She peered down at the car with the look of chronic suspicion that landladies acquire after years of people."

Millar creates a sharp contrast between the misery of those who refuse to forgive, and the grace of those who put in the hard work of understanding and forgiveness. She probes each character in turn and shows how the rigid and intolerant are psychologically incapable of joy or even happiness, how they are toxic to those around them, not just creating but also compounding their own troubles and the troubles of the world.

This novel would not--could not--be published today under a mystery imprint. It's literature with a capital L, and not the precious or pretentious kind. It simply examines the many facets and ordinary characters of a world we already see and reveals in it a depth and richness we rarely take the time to discover. There's too much in here to absorb in a single reading, so this one is on my list to read again.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. I would pick it up and read it for a bit and then I just kept thinking; "I don't like these people and I don't care what happens to them".
I like Millar and I really enjoyed Beast in View but this just left me cold.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this difficult to review. It was not at all what I expected. It's more Peyton Place than Psycho.
The characters are not that different from those in Vanish In An Instant. Though there is no crime, except a little drunk driving.
Millar controls their actions and more the motivation well. I see Gordon's dissatisfaction with his life & wife Elaine. But, is the answer to be with a much, well 10 years younger girl?
The most interesting character is Hazel and her relationship with her ex contrasts well, with the main narrative.
As always with Millar & Ross MacDonald, the location helps to set the scene & Santa Barbara is not especially well presented with quite a few class distinctions and the explicit racism, quietly, though not explicitly challenged of Hazel's cousin Ruth. This was unexpected.
Three stars may be a little harsh, but it's not as much fun as Vanish, but is as well, perhaps even better crafted.
Perhaps one to compare with Highsmith's Carol, as a non crime novel?

[Steven Jorgenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wives and Lovers by Margaret Millar is a really good book. I'd actually rate it 4.5 out of 5 stars. There are a lot of characters in this novel and the book might have been better minus one or two characters. The ending of Wives and Lovers seemed abrupt and probably could have been more fleshed out. Overall a good book.

[Maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another well written novel, where Ms. Millar took a topic and explored with various main and minor characters in a small 1950’s California town, probably similar to Santa Barbara where she lived with her husband Ross Macdonald. There’s not much of a plot, but the dialogue is engaging both for the psychological insights and the character studies.

[Arthur Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Margaret Millar "straight" novel, that is, not a crime story. But it is STILL Margaret Millar, and really doesn't feel much different than her other novels from this period, focusing, as it does, on several interesting and "messed up" characters.

[Jas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had to keep going back and checking if each scene was Gordon or George. Even by the end I wasn't certain which was which.

[It's Mii? · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Regen Ton O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh.

[Marth · Rating 3 out of 5]

old fashioned mystery.... interesting because so dated