Indiscretion

by Charles Dubow, Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

Harry and Madeleine Winslow are blessed with talent, money, and charm. Deeply admired and envied, they play host to a coterie of friends and acolytes eager to bask in their radiance. When they meet Claire, they are enchanted by her winsome youth, intelligence, and naivety. She eagerly falls into their orbit, but soon reverence transforms into dangerous desire.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult Fiction, Book Club, Marriage

Audiobook

First published October 3, 2012

About the author

Charles Dubow was born in New York City and lived on the Upper East Side for the first thirteen years of his life. As a child, he attended the Collegiate School, a private boy’s school on the Upper West Side. Weekends and summers were spent in his family house on Georgica Pond in East Hampton, Long Island, which served as the inspiration for Indiscretion.

After boarding school, he went to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct., and graduated from New York University. Following his sophomore year at Wesleyan he took a year off and went to work on a sheep ranch in New Zealand for six months. When he returned to the U.S. he studied at the Art Students League in Manhattan. Originally he had wanted to be a painter but was disillusioned with the art world and instead turned to fiction. However, after writing several unpublished novels in his twenties, he went into the magazine business, eventually becoming one of the founding editors of Forbes.com and later an editor at Businessweek.com.

In 2007 a health scare prompted him to try to write another book. The general plotline of Indiscretion had been knocking around in his head for years, but in order to write it he had to wake up before dawn every day, working also on weekends and holidays over the course of three years.

Dubow met his wife Melinda in 1991 in New York City. They married in 1996 and today they live in the city with their two children, William and Isabella, and chocolate Labrador Luke. This is his first book.

Reviews

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles Dubow has been there and done that, spending his summers at the family’s place in the Hamptons, counting among his ancestors a US Vice President and the founder of BF Goodrich. He knows the tones of old money, and, as a founding editor of Forbes.com, and later editor at Businessweek, he knows firsthand about the riche, both ancien and nouveau. So it is no wonder that when he turned his talents to fiction he would write of what he knows. It is also clear that he knows about much more than just the world of business.


Charles Dubow - image from NY Post

The echoes of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, resonate loudly in Dubow’s first novel, Indiscretion. This story of need, love and betrayal takes place, primarily, on Long Island, the Hamptons. No Eggs are identified, but it is clear there are older, wealthier settlements, and others inhabited by the nouveau gauche. Claire lights up whatever space she occupies. She is a young and ambitious, living modestly in the city, but a guest at the not-so-modest home of an overpaid acquirer of cash, things, and people. Keep your ears perked and you might hear Clive’s Cambridge accent waver with the dropping of a few aitches and other crimes of inauthenticity when the going gets tough. He hangs great paintings in his flashy home for how they work with the décor.

Madeleine Winslow rises from the older Hamptons world like a Venus, statuesque, athletic, bright, and gorgeous. And she cooks too. The perfect woman, and, of course, rich. Maddy is married to award winning author, Harry Winslow. At Yale he was a hockey hunk with a brain, not particularly rich. They are the perfect couple. Harry has always had the same golden aura that surrounded Gatsby. While recently famous and successful with his book (paralleling Jay’s success), he married into wealth before generating his own, as he and Maddy fell in love at Yale. But this golden boy got to marry the object of his affection. Walter Gervais has spent a huge part of his life here. He still lives in the grand home in which he was raised, by servants, next door to Maddy. He spent a lifetime in love with his own girl next door, only to see her plunge head over heels for the deitific Harry. Walter must get by with the unsatisfying leftover of platonic friendship. If one aspires to perfection everything else seems so disappointing. It is Walter who, with his ennui, guides us through this tale. He carries the unmistakable sound of Nick Carraway with him.

But Gatsby is not the only sound echoing down the sands. Claire does not take long to set her sights on Harry, a step up in her climb. And here we detect the tones of Eve Harrington. Is Claire another Gertrude Slojinski? Is Walter another Addison DeWitt? Part of the fun here is to see if Claire is Eve Harrington. I am not telling, but she does come to the Hamptons for a gold-plated weekend with Clive and it does not take long before she sees a bit more glitter in Harry. A straight up comparison to All About Eve soon fails, though. Maddy is no Margo Channing although Claire does attempt to absorb all she can from her. Walter shows some cynical traits, a la Addison, (the irony is that he thinks I’ve been a friend to him. Like an aging matinee idol, whenever he hears applause, he always thinks it is for him.) but seems, ultimately, cut from a cleaner cloth.

That is one of the things about Indiscretion. It makes you think about other great works, but does not stoop to copying. It is definitely its own story, however many atmospheric elements it may use to enhance its world. Debow has breathed life into all of his main characters. You will care what happens to them. And you will find yourself ripping through this book to see where it goes and what happens to them.

Sleep will be lost by many who stay up a little late, then a bit later, still not wanting to put off until morning finding out what happens. No murders, no national crises, only a few shades of gray, and a fair bit of sturdy core make Indiscretion far, far more than a summer fling of a book. It is about human longing, and our lemming-like urge toward tragedy.

What is enough?...There is an innate greediness that is part of the human condition. It drove Eve to eat the apple; it impelled Bonaparte to invade Russia and caused Scott to die in the frozen wastes of the Antarctic. We have different names for it. What is curiosity other than greed for experience, for recognition, for glory? For activity to distract ourselves from ourselves? We hate the idea that we have come as far as we are going to go. And we are not content with what we have or how far we have come. We want more, whether it is food, knowledge, respect, power, or love. And that lack of contentment pushes us to try new things, to brave the unknown, to alter our lives and risk losing everything we already had.

Walter suffers from his unrequited romantic love for Maddy. Claire pines for a higher rung on the social ladder, although there is more to her than her hunger. And Harry, a golden boy, with a fabulous wife, plenty of resources, great looks, talent and prospects, finds that there is something more that he wants. He is boosted by young Claire being attracted to him, as his love life at home has gone a bit soft and he is suffering pangs of insecurity re his career. Maddy, possessor of great physical beauty and more than enough wealth, wedded to a celebrated writer, wants, above all, to be loved for herself.

It is worth noting that the name Madeleine means magnificent, and she is certainly portrayed so here, at least to outward appearance. The name Claire means clarity, and the character certainly seems pretty clear on what she wants. Perhaps it is ironic how her clarity results in such confusion for those she affects. The name Walter is associated with war, and this is reflected in his occasional strategizing and most obviously in the décor of his city apartment

I love this room. Books, mostly histories and biographies, line the Chinese red walls. Military prints. On the shelves are miniature painted model soldiers. Mamelukes, hussars. One of my hobbies. I am especially fond of Napoleon’s Grande Armee. A sword that had reputedly belonged to Murat, and for which I paid a small fortune, hangs over the mantel.

In fact the description of various living spaces informs us well about the people who inhabit them. The name Harry means heroic leader, but I saw little of that here. Not a person of great economic means, he spent his college summers working and joined the military after college. Honorable, definitely, but not necessarily heroic.

Ok, so we are clear, I loved this book. Now time to pick a few nits. Debow throws us some literary red herrings. He opens the book with a monologue about how we alter the past when we remember it, but I found little in the book that put that notion to work. I kept wondering when recollections would be found to have been false, but if they were there, I must be too lacking in perception to have recognized them. Maybe Walter was idolizing his childhood with Maddy into something more than it was. Probably something else. Maybe it is right out there and I just missed it. Don’t know. Walter is given some Addison DeWitt lines, and does a thing or two that would be consistent with that sort of character, but then, later, does not intervene to guide events when we are expecting him to.

Walter speaks to us in the prologue

The notion that the past is more idyllic is absurd…What we remember is our innocence, strong limbs, physical desire. Many people are shackled by their past and are unable to look ahead with any degree of confidence because then not only don’t believe in the future, they don’t really believe in themselves.

But that doesn’t prevent us from casting a roseate glow over our memories. Some memories burn brighter, whether because they meant more or because they have assumed greater importance in our minds

The characters here, it seems to me, are not so much looking backward through rose-tinted lenses, as they are trying to compensate for what they did not have as children. Does anyone here have a nice childhood to look back on? Not Claire, who was forced back to France for unwanted stays with an unfriendly grandmother. After her father remarried and all but abandoned her she “learned that love did not give itself freely. That if she wanted it, it had to be taken.” Not Walter who was raised in large measure by servants. Not Madeleine who pines for the love she did not receive as a child, having had a father who left strap welts on the backs of her legs. Harry had the sanest upbringing of them all. His father was a prep school instructor and he was a faculty brat, spending his youth “living on borrowed privilege.” But Walter, of them all, is the one most shackled to his youthful fantasies, the one who seems to be the most in denial.

Indiscretion is a remarkable first novel, not what one would expect from a guy whose published writing has been business reportage. Clearly there was undiscovered value in his holdings and we now can all benefit. Spend the time; make the investment. Reading Indiscretion will pay serious dividends.

Pub Date – October 3, 2012

Review first posted – July 2012

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s Twitter and FB pages

Feb 6, 2013 - Indiscretion was named to Oprah's list of 16 must reads for February 2013

It was also named as one of the top Indie Next reads for Feb 2013

And got noticed in USA Today as well

----------Interviews
-----Interview Magazine
-----Chatelaine


The Land of Lost Content
by Alfred Edward Housman

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows:
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?

That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 5 out of 5]

”It is one thing to be lied to, but it is something else again to be the liar. But even then, most of us don’t look at it like that. We make up our own excuses, justifying the betrayal, clothing it in nobler raiment. It is easy to pretend that maintaining a lie is in the best interest of those we might hurt, supreme in the confidence that we will never get caught. Of all deceptions, that is the most common and the most foolish--and the one for which people have the least sympathy.”

A couple of decades ago I made the momentous decision not to lie anymore. I’m not talking about the white lies that we all tell to keep from hurting someone’s feelings which is all part of being a good human being, but the big lies. I decided I was secure enough in who I am as a person to take the heat instead of using a lie to extract myself from a difficult situation. (I do reserve the right if someone has a gun pointed at my head to lie my ass off.) I also believe in the burden of truth. Sometimes it is my responsibility to carry the truth on my shoulders and not share that burden with others. This book reminded me of the importance of staying true to those principles.

Harry Winslow has it all. He is married to one of the most lovely women on the planet and she has a trust fund. ”Maddy is … strikingly beautiful. Long red-gold ringlets...and pale blue eyes. No makeup. A patrician face.”He has a son who adores him. He has friends, good friends, who hang on his every word. His latest novel has just won major prizes. The world has bowed at his feet. ”He was always a self-contained unit, someone so supremely confident in his own abilities that he never once questioned them. He had never needed to. I know he worked hard, but it was the work that a gifted athlete puts into his training regimen. It helps to elevate his game, a game that most of us could never hope to play and never pretend we could.”

His relationship with Maddy has evolved. ”Over the years, they had made love with less and less frequency. Theirs had become a working relationship, and had long ceased being a passionate one. They were a team, she explained to me. After twenty years, some things change.” To me what she is really saying is they have become comfortable. They have long since fought over what they needed to fight about and now instead of battles they have skirmishes. They have sacrificed some passion to achieve peace. They have heard each others best stories several times, but the retelling is like listening to Homer sing the stories of Troy. You may have heard them before many times, but with each telling there is always someone new hearing it for the first time and their reactions give the story life again and again. Harry and Maddy are securely nested and as long as neither one of them go through a major personality change or tell one of those BIG LIES their lives will keep spinning in this carefully cultivated orbit.

And then Claire arrives.

”The poet Lamartine wrote that a woman is at the beginning of all great things. It’s indisputable. After all, women give birth to us, so they are always at the beginning. But, whether they mean to be or not, they are also present at the beginning of terrible things too.”

She is pretty, maybe even stunningly pretty, but more importantly she is young, vibrant, and humming like a live wire. ”And she, like so many of the young, was looking for a shortcut, an edge over the competition, always in a hurry, not yet realizing there is no benefit in speeding up the journey, that the destination is not the point but merely part of the process. They also don’t fully appreciate that their actions have repercussions. That lives can be ruined. Of course, the young don’t have a monopoly on selfishness. We want what we want. The bitter truth is that it rarely makes us happy once we get it.”

Temptations are bombs wrapped with pretty bows. It always amazes me to watch people crater twenty years of work in twenty minutes. If you had asked Harry if it was even a possibility that he would have an affair he would have told you emphatically, probably with a boisterous laugh, that it was impossible. I have never fooled myself that way. I know it is possible and I believe I need to always keep the mirror of that knowledge in the pupil of my eyes so that I’m not vulnerable to my own stupidity. Charles Dubow, I will admit, writes some pretty steamy sex scenes; and yet, at the same time I found them not just titillating, but also introspectively tasteful.

She pulls down his trousers...She slowly rubs...Oh god...She takes him in her...looking up at him...She shudders...He watches...She moans, clenching herself like a fist...deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper...My god, My god, My god...

Well okay so I left out all the good parts and the introspective parts, but to read the rest is just another great incentive for all of you to buy, borrow, or steal this book.

Harry lies to Maddy and that is the unraveling of twenty years of trust. There is never enough air for any of them after that.

The book is narrated by Walter, a childhood friend of Maddy, but also very good friends with Harry. He is godfather to their son Johnny, he has always been in love with Maddy, and he is one of those friends that every single person on the planet needs. Similar to Nick Carraway he is included in nearly all aspects of their lives, confided in with what he doesn’t see, and tenaciously investigates what he doesn’t know. He is why we have this story instead of just pieces of a tragic tale that collapses for lack of ropes, guide wires, and stage direction. Like any good playwright Walter will misdirect you, make you question your beliefs, and throw glitter in your eyes. This book was like a Milky Way candy bar for the brain, impossible to put down, and every bite is just as good as the last. This cast of characters will seduce you, and bring joy and pain as if you are there at the table drinking martinis(martinis are like women’s breasts; one is not enough and three are too many.), eating Maddy’s food, and gazing with fondness at their majestic faces. Highly Recommended!!!


And if you don't believe me read the review that convinced me. To read this book by my friend Will Byrnes. Link to Will's Review

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

[*TANYA* · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We make so many right decisions in life, but it is the wrong ones that can never be forgiven."

A very emotional book, it's sneaks up on you and hooks you until the very end. Riveting!!

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy Moly…what a juicy book! Well written, prurient, unputdownable. The novel is perfectly titled. It isn’t difficult to figure out that it refers to a reckless decision that may ultimately lead to ruinous repercussions. At first, I was merely engaged as I witnessed the events in the life of this elegant and sophisticated couple…who seemed so perfectly matched and happily married. Later in the novel, I was riveted while waiting for the hammer to fall and the final outcome. Great Book! "Oh, what a tangled web we weave….." LOL!

[switterbug (Betsey) · Rating 5 out of 5]

You will know almost from the beginning whether this book is for you. It will strike you as either timeless or time-worn. There are few surprises in the storyline; it is definitely the journey, not the destination, that matters, and the perennial themes of love, betrayal, and desire. Moreover, the significance of memory is the lodestar that makes this book shine, subtly so.

Love triangles are common in novels; this one has a familiar Gatsby quality. The narrator is the odd man out, the even fourth--the outsider who is also an insider whose self-contained status is crumbling. Set in Southampton in contemporary times, its Gatsby shadow rifts through the pages. Dubow’s characters are molded from Fitzgerald’s, then nuanced for his own tale, and persist as realistic and dimensional. Their fates have an intimate, in-the-room proximity, and the reader is emotionally present, sensing the breath of the author’s words and seeing a vivid reflection of an ineluctable mercy.

The narrator, Walter, is a well-heeled, monkish lawyer, and best friends to lovely couple Harry and Maddy Winslow, and godson to their young son, Johnny. Harry is an esteemed writer working on his third novel, having a few problems getting started. As Walter narrates the story, which includes yet another outsider, radiant young Claire, the plot is anticipated. However, a steady tension and suspense grow, despite the ordinary framework. The taut pacing and lean beauty of the narrative, as well as the inner dialogue and philosophical reflections, carry the reader forward. The prose is sleek, clean, and terse, the descriptions scintillating and vital.

“Life is a series of remembered impressions. A smell, a touch, a sunset, carved angels in a cathedral, the death of a parent. We cannot take in everything we see, so we make sense of what we can, using these fragments to make up a whole. Patterns emerge, sometimes randomly; sometimes they mislead. Sometimes they reveal the truth.”

The heat of the story is contained within those vibrant lines—individual and shared memories seen through the lens of Walter’s perceptions. Some events are creations out of the ashes, or of moments not witnessed. Walter is the eye and ear of others in the story, a subjective observer. At times, his memories are fragments, remote or fading, tugging at him, captured from the ether, shared with the willing reader.

Dubow’s dialogue is his one weakness, often stilted and clichéd, but is more than compensated for in the whole of the text, the lyric and rhythm of the passages. It’s a sob and sigh story, sentimental at intervals but not treacly. It is elegant and evocative.

[Larry H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy, did I love this book. I actually finished it days ago but haven't had time to write a review until now, and I've not been able to get it out of my mind.

Madeleine and Harry Winslow have been together since they were students at Yale some 20 years earlier. They have it all—charm, looks, money, and talent, as Harry is a National Book Award-winning author just on the verge of becoming a household name. They are always surrounded by friends and acquaintances, whether they're at their summer home in the Hamptons, their apartment in New York City, or even in a rented apartment in Rome, where they travel so Harry can finish his next book. As Walter, the Nick Carraway-esque narrator says, "I can think of no heroes of literature who would fit their paradigm. Their story lacks the obstacles to passion. They met and fell in love. It is one of the simplest and, at the same time, most difficult things to do. The drama of their lives is that they know how to keep love alive."

One summer, the Winslows meet Claire, who is in the Hamptons with a boorish man she is dating. Claire is immediately drawn to the appeal of both Winslows, and her intelligence, beauty, and admiration of the couple quickly wins her a place in their crowd. But by the end of the summer, Claire's admiration turns to a strong desire for Harry, which he easily rebuffs, as he is deeply in love with Maddy. As Walter remarks, "It is easy to tempt, but only the truly strong can resist." When the Winslows leave for Rome, it seems as though Claire's desire will pass, yet when circumstances bring Harry and Claire together unexpectedly, he finds himself unable to resist her. He falls deeply for Claire, yet he never falls out of love or desire for his wife. And then, of course, Maddy discovers the betrayal, which leads to both expected and unexpected outcomes.

This is a book about lifelong friendships, love, devotion, passion, and desire. Can you truly love two people at once? Can you spend your entire life loving someone from a distance and be happy only with their proximity? Does betrayal truly kill long-time love? All four main characters—Maddy, Harry, Claire, and Walter—each are touched in some way by these questions. Indiscretion is so beautifully written, so emotionally satisfying, that I was even able to deal with the fact that I found Claire's character unappealing, and not simply because of her role in the story.

The world of literature is full of books about infidelity, so you may wonder what makes this superlative debut novel so good when there are so many books out there that tell similar stories. The fact is, while the story may not be unique, Dubow draws you into his characters' lives and gets you so fully immersed that you can't help but be hooked by what happens to them. And even if you can predict what might happen, the journey to those incidents is so worthwhile it doesn't matter if you've seen it all before. That is a true testament to his enormous talent as a writer, and the story he has created. I hope it moves and affects you as much as it did me.

[Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Charles Dubow's debut Indiscretion seems to be one of those books that I Just Don't Get. It's not that I hated it. It's just that so many people seem to be raving about it and I really don't understand why. As a result of reading some five-star reviews and something that compared it to The Secret History (pfft - as if), I was very excited about this book and was looking forward to savouring the discovery of a new favourite: unfortunately, I was disappointed.

In brief, this is the story of an impossibly perfect married couple, Harry and Maddy Winslow. Harry is an up-and-coming novelist who has recently won a prestigious literary award. Maddy is... Well, actually I'm not sure, but she's ridiculously beautiful and an amazing cook (these two things are mentioned an awful lot). With a New York townhouse, a lakeside summer house, a charming young son and a host of glamorous, wealthy friends, the Winslows lead an idyllic life. Enter Claire, a young woman who, after a chance meeting with the couple, insinuates herself into the lives of their social circle. The majority of the book is the story of what happens to all of these people when Claire decides to pursue Harry. The tale is narrated by Walter, one of the Winslow family's closest friends, who has known Maddy since before she met Harry.

The thing is, I really found it difficult to figure out who in this story I was supposed to care about. Claire was cold, Maddy was boring, Harry was boring and obnoxious, Walter was featureless. And yes, I know, characters don't have to be likeable for a book to be good, but after I thought about it I realised that wasn't the only problem: I didn't believe in them either. I definitely couldn't believe that Harry was intelligent enough to be a successful writer; I didn't understand what was supposed to be so amazing about Maddy that practically every man fell madly in love with her, but equally, I couldn't see what would particularly attract Harry to Claire when Maddy was apparently the perfect wife. I was told these things, but I couldn't see any justification for them in the way the characters were described, the way they behaved or the things they spoke about. It's all about money with these people - endless dull descriptions of gourmet food and wine and beautiful houses - but there doesn't seem to be anything more to it. If any of them actually had an intelligent conversation about something other than themselves at any point during the book, I don't remember it. I was left with the impression that I would die of boredom if I had to spend any length of time around these awful people, and that the lot of them deserved whatever happened. Consequently, the ending didn't have the emotional impact it was probably supposed to.

Many reviews have compared Walter's narration to that of Nick in The Great Gatsby, and I can certainly see the similarity - indeed, the whole thing might be seen as Gatsby from another perspective, with Walter as the Gatsby figure (the extremely rich but lonely neighbour, infatuated with the female protagonist of the novel for most of his life) and the Winslows as the Buchanans (the outwardly perfect couple with what turns out to be a not-so-perfect marriage). I would have to add to that a comparison to Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty, another book I liked but had a number of the same negative reactions to, ie: the narrator was so indistinct as to be almost pointless; his habit of describing events he hadn't been privy to using his own imagination made him even more so; I was constantly being told something about a character (or, in this case, numerous characters) but not being shown any evidence for whatever that was.

If you've read this far, you're probably wondering why on earth I didn't just give this book one star. The fact is, I did actually think it was very good in some ways: it was well-written, elegant, and interesting enough that I never wanted to give up on it even though I didn't like any of the characters. It sometimes happen that I can consider a book to be technically very good while also thinking there are major problems with the characterisation or some other key issue - another good example of this would be Elanor Dymott's Every Contact Leaves a Trace - just as I can occasionally really enjoy a book I know to be quite badly written. Overall, I'm sad to say I wouldn't really recommend Indiscretion: if this is the good life, then this lot can keep it, thanks very much.

[The.Saved.Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book sucked me in right from the start. How many books are there about infidelity of unfaithful partners? Probably more than I can count. Why is Indiscretion different? I can't quite put my finger on it but I feel like it had something to do with the constant niggling in the back of my mind that something was going to go drastically wrong? Did something else happen you ask? Well, yes, but you're going to have to read this book to find out.

I could really feel the love between Maddy, Harry and the rest of their gang. I am still appalled by Claire-who seemingly cared so little in the end.

I thought this book was outstanding, I could not wait to get back to it. I highly recommend it.

[Cathy DuPont · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.” Oscar Wilde

I’ve been fretting over this review for days.

Now, what should I say today about this book? Maybe I should choose the other draft review from yesterday. Or perhaps I should I go that other direction and post the review I wrote last Friday? Decisions, decision, decisions.

Not telling you anything you don’t already know, but decisions are made by all of us all of the time each and every day. Some, of course, are more life altering decisions than others such as whether or not I should have an affair. Decisions such as those, sometimes are spontaneous but nevertheless, they are decisions.

Now this we can all agree on; as a married man or woman, having an affair is a life altering decision. The ramifications of such a decision affects so many people and then in turn requires that other life altering decisions be made.


Please step down off the train to your new life

So what to do? Well, go read a damn book instead and think it over rationally, for god’s sake. Just kidding, I have no idea what to do, it’s your decision but know the decision is life altering.

Say what you want readers, Indiscretion shows shades of The Great Gatsby but it is not F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic book. And in my opinion, it’s not as close to that classic as many reviewers have indicated.

Yes, there are similarities but there are similarities in books about war; books about cooking; books about reading books. My disclaimer, folks, this, of course, is my opinion and I’ve notice many disagree with that assessment.

I love to hate books like these kind of books. Hate it when I must put it down and hurry to finish what I need to do so that I can get back to reading. There's an urgency to read but at the same time a sorrow knowing that the faster the book is read, the sooner it will be over. And I don’t want it to end.

The storyline flowed so easy with Dubow's descriptions so lovely and visible with his readable sentence structure. The dialog was, in all instances, spot on, just enough.

And bless Mrs. Dubow, I can see her now when they're making whoopee: "Hold it there, honey, I need to take a note." "Sweetie, hold that thought, just let me get the pad and pencil." "Darling, please take a deep breath and hold that thought while I jot something down."

WOW! Dubow's love scenes are just, just...hummm, they just blew me away they were so sexy, so luscious and erotic and did I say stimulating? Hummm, again, they were sexy and hot as hell. Holy moly, here I am reading all by myself and I'm blushing. And, yes, the AC was on. Guess Dubow just had to try those scenes on his wife to see how well they worked. They did and I'm sure she said the same thing, "yes, dear, it worked well, just great that way. But perhaps you need to kick it up a notch after dinner."


All homes on Long Island are not mansions

(Sorry, had to interrupt those thoughts with this scenery nearby the area described by Dubow on Long Island.)

After reading a book sometimes before I write my review and/or sometimes after I write my review, I’ll take time to read the reviews of others.

What I noticed was that many reviewers said, “I would have ended it like …..” with others saying, “I liked it but then the ending was not how I wanted it” with other similar remarks. Remarks such as that just drive me crazy, completely and utterly crazy. These people should write their own book, so they can have their own ending. Sorry, this is not the first time I’ve gotten on this soapbox and probably won’t be the last either.

If you like westerns or mysteries you need to read this book. Same with sci-fi, take a break and read this book. Regardless of your favorite genre, you need to read this amazing book. And forget The Great Gatsby, please.

Do yourself a favor, too, read Will Byrnes review of Indiscretion.He's known throughout the Goodreads domain as an excellent reviewer. No kidding, it's true, I don't lie about such things.

And a big thanks to Will and his amazing wife for this wonderful gift. It might be the best book I'll read this year.

[Christina (Confessions of a Book Addict) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harry Winslow lives the perfect life. He has a beautiful wife, Maddy, an adorable son and a fantastic career as a successful author. To top it all off, he spends his summers at the Hamptons with his friends and family enjoying his charmed life. One day at the beach he meets a young girl named Claire who he ends up running into again at one of his parties, so finally, he and his wife, Maddy, take her under their wings as she is sort of down and out on her luck. Initially, they make Claire one of their many friends at the beach, but things take an awkward turn when Claire develops feelings for the larger-than-life author, Harry. Even though it's Labor Day weekend and the end of summer, Claire wants this summer to never end and can't say goodbye to Harry, especially since he is going to be living in Rome to write his next book. Indiscretion by Charles Dubow is a steamy read that explores serious issues about marriage, friendship, infidelity, and the choices we make in life.

Harry and Maddy are such charismatic characters; it's no wonder Claire was drawn to them like a moth to the flame. Their lifestyle, their friends, the parties, the money...it's all very appealing and to someone like Claire who really hasn't found her way, it was like opening a a whole new world to her. This is all well and good until she gets too close for comfort.

Indiscretion is told from Walter's (Maddy's childhood friend) point of view. This type of narrator reminded me a bit of The Great Gatsby as I wanted to know exactly what Maddy, Harry or Claire was thinking, but we only could see it through Walter's eyes. This made for an interesting read and definitely had me flipping pages.

Indiscretion is VERY steamy. I don't often read romance novels or anything of the sort really, so this took me by surprise. But I will admit, all of the sensual details definitely added to the drama in Indiscretion. If this kind of thing bothers you, then I would avoid this novel, but don't get me wrong, the whole book isn't sexual, but I'm just warning that they are some graphic scenes.

Part of what attracted me to this book is the setting. East Hampton during the summertime is my kind of read; plus, it follows the characters through the seasons and readers will find themselves in New York City and Rome. My favorite parts of Indiscretion are Dubow's descriptions of the Hamptons and the summer fun to be had there. In this freezing January weather, I really relished in those descriptions.

Indiscretion put me through the ringer. It made me feel serious at times, had me blushing, feeling angry or sometimes sad. It really made me feel a ton of emotions and I think that Dubow truly illustrates how one small decision can have consequences that reverberate throughout not only your life, but the people that you love.

My only issue with Indiscretion was the ending. I can't say anything else about it, because I would spoil the plot, but let's just say, it wasn't what I was hoping for.

So, if you are looking for a juicy adult read that has serious undertones, is well written, and is thought provoking then get your hands on a copy of Indiscretion. I think it would be perfect to curl up with this winter or to bring with you to the beach this spring break or summer.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This was one of those books I looked forward to reading for a couple of months but was ultimately a little disappointed. It was compelling and it read quickly but I quickly found I had little sympathy for the two main characters and could barely tolerate the rest of the cast, plus it seemed a little melodramatic at times. However, it did keep my me from getting my much needed beauty rest last night as I had to find out the fate of the two lovers.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Webster's Dictionary sitting by my computer (I know, how old fashioned) defines indiscretion
n. act of being indiscreet; an error of judgment. Charles Dubow's book is titled well!

Any exploration of a marriage in writing interests me. I'm always curious to see what route an author will take to explain this union of two.

To be true to its title we know from the outset that there will be a break of trust for the couple in question. This surprises us as they seem the perfect couple, theirs the perfect marriage. But lurking just a bit in the shadows is the someone that will put this marriage to the test. Walter, the narrator is just as shocked as we when indiscretion visits. Soon, Walter and the reader and even the couple themselves, need to look at the partnership under closer scrutiny and inspect the flaws. Will the foundation crumble or will a touch of love repair the fault?

On first inspection I was just engrossed enough to keep reading but there came a point where tables turned and I was hooked. I loved the way the author begins Indiscretion in Summer and begins this sultry tale with sunblock and bathing suits and the privileged Westhampton shore. Moving on through the seasons, just like those of a marriage, Dubow lays out this union for our inspection.

[Mark Bremmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked it! Wealthy family attracts many to their parties on East Hampton, New York or Paris. Brings out the good and bad in people including expectations, wants and purported needs. Surprising twists. A chapter later in the book sets up a "rosy" ending and then states at its end that none of it is true. Gets my attention, and how!! Next chapter delves into sad realities.

[debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

My onliest comment is to see both Larry Hoffer and Carol's most bigly excellent review of this title!

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Wow! "Indiscretion" was a really good read. This book really boils down to showing how one really bad, ill-advised decision can totally derail not only one life but many lives surrounding that one person. It's a universal story that has been told before but the way that Dubow does it in this book breathes new life into this story.

Almost all of the characters in this book are flawed. They aren't happy characters but this is not a happy book. This is the sort of book that makes you think and these are the sort of characters that I don't think any of us would really like to end up like. They are also characters that you will not want to stop reading about. Dubow does a great job with bringing the main characters to life. These could be people that you know in real life.

There is Harry, the award winner writer, who seems to have it all. He has a great career and a great family. He seems happy until he makes the decision that seems to seal the fates of the main characters in the story. There is beautiful Maddy, Harry's wife, who just seems to be along for the ride in a lot of parts of the book. Even though she seems incredibly steady and stable, she is totally taken off course because of Harry and never recovers. There is Claire, who wants more, always more. And then there is Walter, who may be the most complicated but fascinating character of the bunch, and he is the childhood friend of Maddy and who never really got over her rejection and yet he hangs in the background and makes Maddy's family his pseudo family. He seems to both be happy and sad that Harry and Maddy's family has been torn apart. I really wanted to know more about Walter's inner workings but wasn't left disappointed when more detail never came. In a way, I think it was sort of cool as the reader to have the freedom to come up with your own speculation about Walter, his emotions, and his motives.

It is very cool to me that this is Dubow's debut novel. The writing is so good! It's clean but descriptive. His writing is not particularly flowery and in some spots, it is quite stark. There are a couple passages that I loved so much that I had to flag them with a post-it (for me, this is a sign of true book love). Even though part of the enjoyment in this book is the twists and turns Dubow gives the reader, I can see myself wanting to read this book again in the future just to re-live the experience.

The book does talk a lot about an affair and there is sex in this book (not a lot) and some of that sex is graphic (an even smaller amount); however, it is not gratuitous. It did not bother me in the least but I figure that I should give you all fair warning since some people don't care for that sort of thing.

Bottom line: This was a very good read and I can't wait to see what Dubow comes out with next.

[Cyndi Becker · Rating 4 out of 5]

should be a 3.5 rating -

Well written story, and reasons for the extra 1/2 star are due to the fact that it definitely invoked emotions which is the sign of good writing, no great writing.


*** possible spoilers****

The twisted/multiple ending set up was the rare thing that set this a apart from other stories about infidelity - and telling it using Walter voice made it unique - I was hugely disappointed in the true epilogue as I just wanted a happy ending - I really Needed that, and I should have known better because stories like this RARELY end well. I am finding that I have to only pepper my reading list with books about infidelity as they make me crazy sad!! I can handle angst, but not angst cause by infidelity so I think I will have to stop reading books based on this. Few closing thoughts character wise -

I hate that Claire didn't find herself culpable in the demise of Harry and Maddy's marriage - she set out to seduce, pushed for further encounters and gave no thought for any one else - if she were someone I knew, I would pretty much hate her. Then she says Harry is completely to blame as she was "young and naive". that is no excuse for her deliberate seduction. There didn't seem to be any initial encouragement from Harry so it really feels like she was just a classless, thoughtless deliberately trying to ruin the lives of people who showed her sympathy and support.

Harry - never really picked up that he cared for Claire all that much- thought at first he was going to leave well enough alone and leave it all be with what happened in New York just that, a happening but boy oh boy was I let down.

Maddy - she deserved a happy ending - she did not deserve to be cheated on, and she deserved to be vindicated.

Walter - eh, story telling POV made his character necessary but eh, he did nothing for me and his descriptions of his unrequited of his feelings for Maddy got old - we got it!

Johnny - just sad about that...ending 2 stunk :-( and i'm left feeling like I want a rewrite

Moral of the story - Don't cheat on someone you love - don't fall in love outside your marriage...too many innocent victims....

[Bren fall in love with the sea. · Rating 4 out of 5]

“We live in an age when we are no longer surprised that people let us down the only surprise is that we are so constantly willing to allow ourselves to be deceived.”
― Charles Dubow, Indiscretion

This is one of the best.

I so enjoyed "Indescretion". I am not going to go through what the book is about as there are so many who have done that, but will share, with spoilers, what I loved about it and why I only gave it 4 stars even though I think it is extraordinary and worthy of 5.


First off. the book takes a subject that has been done, done and done again..and turns it on itself. In most books about infidelity, there is some underlying cause, some reason why a person cheats. Here there is none. Harry and Mads have a great relationship. They share everything with each other. They are best friends. This book is brutal in showing why Harry cheats..there is no reason except for perhaps his own vanity.

And the book is narrated by Walter the forever friend of Madeline. He has been in love with her for most of his life. Walter was a sad soul. I liked him and felt he sold himself short in almost every way imaginable. Clearly he did not have a high opinion of himself. The format of this book has been compared to "The Great Gatsby" and I can understand those comparisons.

And then there is Claire. Claire is the seductress, the one who shatters the happy bubble of the Winslow's life together. I had much antipathy toward Claire. I had to fight with myself through the book because my reaction to her was so visceral.

SPOILERS:

Perhaps it would not have been if she had not tired of Harry so quickly. If she actually loved him or had any idea what love is I would have understood her way more. We see her gradually become tired of Harry, his jokes, even their tooth brushes.

At the end, when Walter and Claire meet one last time my feelings did not change even with her big reveal. I still could not stand her. Go figure..

OK..So I obviously adored this book. Why no 5? Well it is the twist..or the "bait and switch" ending. I loathed that. It brought the power of the book down so much for me. Why do great books..really great books..think they need a twist to be great? I just do not get it.

It is worth noting that I knew exactly where that ending was going as soon as Walter cursed the plane. And so I am sure, did other readers.

So..4.5 from me. I did so enjoy this. Grim, horrible ending but still a great book that makes you question. Outstanding.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars despite the urge to throw this book down on several occasions.

So, there's really nothing new (or realistic) here...everyone is beautiful, rich, successful, smart, and just plain old dandy while living the Manhattan dream (summerhouse in the Hamptons required)...think John F. Kennedy and Carolyn Bessette (actually a better comparison might be Edward and Bella from Twilight)...then throw in a mid-life crisis and the flirtatious, stunning, though considerably younger and immature tagalong turned home wrecker and you've got Dubow's first novel. Oh and let's not forget the slightly awkward though incredibly wealthy childhood and faithful-to-the-end goddess-worshipping best friend...(take out the awkwardness and, coincidentally, you have Jacob from Twilight).

There were no surprises, no twists or unexpected turns. In fact, I knew everything that was going to happen, long before it happened.

Yet still, I was sucked in because what Dubow does and does well (and so did Stephenie Meyer btw) is to bring his characters to life. So many times, I'll be reading a book and suddenly the only person I see, the only person I hear is the author. But Dubow's characters really came to life, sucked me in, and prevented the voyeur within from looking away. I mean, you know a book has you when you're so pissed off at the protagonist for acting like a spoiled and selfish toddler (because he's real after all) that you almost close the book.

It also didn't hurt that Dubow's descriptions of Paris and Greece and New York, all the finer aspects of this great big world many of us are too poor or too busy to experience first hand with any regularity are quite well done.

Rarely do I say that I like a book not despite its faults but because of them. But I actually think this book's faults are part of the charm. I mean if these beautiful, smart, talented, and uber-educated almost perfect characters can't get it right, then surely the rest of us should get a little slack. Right?

Bottom line: thoroughly enjoyed it. Would definitely read the sequel...only in this case everyone died, so I guess I'll just have to settle with his next book.

[Leslie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could have given this novel two or even three stars in terms of readability, but my main reaction (given how difficult it is to have a novel picked up by a major publisher) is that the author must have been incredibly well connected (which does seem to be the case) to publish a novel this mundane and with such poorly delineated characters. It's not giving anything away to say that this book revolves around a triangle between prize-winning novelist, Harry Winslow, his gorgeous "earth-motherly" wife Maddy, and a beautiful and sensual younger woman named Claire. Events are narrated by Maddy's lifelong best friend Walter Gervais. Walter carries a torch for Maddy, is often believed by others to be asexual or gay, has avoided marriage, but claims to have had affairs and initially is attracted to Claire, although his interest is very easily and quickly deflected by her.

With good writing and interesting characterization, this could have been a promising story arc...but over and over Dubow TELLS rather than SHOWS. Maddy, Harry, and Claire are supposed to be golden people of exceptional physical attractiveness, but for the story to hang together there has to be a lot more to them than a declaration of good looks. Maddy is characterized as resilient (a "poor little rich girl" with an abusive father) and WONDERFUL, Harry is magnetic and multi-talented (having been a Marine pilot and easily fulfilling his literary aspirations by winning the National Book Award for his second novel), and Claire is supposed to be sexually and emotionally compelling. Unfortunately, we have to take Walter's word for all of this since there is nothing in the dialogue or action (with the exception of the book award) that demonstrates any of this. Conversations are not witty or compelling, nor do they show awareness of the moral complexities of the situation. The actions are mundanely human and show typical human ambivalence and weakness. The characters (especially Walter) feel flat and almost stereotypical in their responses to different situations.

Events are related within what appears to be a purposefully vague timeline. The technology of the novel seems to reflect the world as it existed in the latter part of the first decade of the 2000s with references to ubiquitous iPods and characters receiving emails via smartphone, but at the plot's convenience the characters rely heavily on landlines and messages left in hotel voice mail. To me the main part of the novel (the time of the affair) feels more as if it were set in the mid to late 1990s rather than 2005-2010.

At the end of the novel we are treated to two very different epilogues, the one that "might have been" and the one that came to pass. I have no objection to an author having his cake and eating it by providing two different endings (especially since one is explicitly "might have been"), but the time trick in which the author catapults us about 20-30 years into the future seems odd in a novel that is supposed to be set (albeit vaguely) in contemporary times.

What positive I can say -- this was not a tedious book. It went quickly, and Dubow's writing, if not artistic or sophisticated, is straightforward and clear. I also enjoyed his depiction of life in the Hamptons as it was in the 70s and 80s, and as it has become in the 2000s.

Walter is compared in the jacket copy to Nick Carraway, and the Long Island setting and triangle-based plots bears a superficial resemblance to The Great Gatsby. But this is no Gatsby in terms of quality of writing, the development of character, or insights about the vagaries of life. It really surprises me, how many very good to excellent reviews this book has received.

[Jenny Jo Weir · Rating 5 out of 5]

I HATE this amazingly fantastic beautifully tragic phenomenal book. I. Hate. It. This is what I get for searching for books that make me feel, it's my hamartia, I deserve what this book did to me.

I'm honest enough to admit the book is one of the best I have ever read, yet petulant enough to never recommend it. I cant understand why this author would use his incredible talent to create such a magnificent hauntingly tragically beautiful story. WHY? I'm so disturbed and changed by it, almost to the point of pain. It is a story that will undoubtedly stay with me forever, and I hate it all the more because of so.

I'm ok with the Penguin King reaping what he sowed but what about the Queens harvest? What about the Queen? Where is her Karma? UGH!!!!

[B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what reading is all about for me -- an absorbing story, beautifully written, with characters that seem so real I know I will miss them when I am done.
Dubow has taken what should be an ordinary, time worn story -- a man's adulterous affair -- and turned it into something riveting. The device he employs of having the narrator recount the story by looking back on events only adds to the tension. I am in awe of this author's ability to capture so authentically the shifting feelings of the players involved, and in doing so to evoke sympathy for all the players involved. Is Claire, the other woman, to be loathed, feared, pitied? And what of Harry, is he weak..a fool..deserving of forgiveness? So too, the narrator, the affable family friend Walter, an echo of Nick from The Great Gatsby, who is hopelessly in love with the wife, is a man of many shades.
Top it all off with a quiet and gut-wrenching ending that does not resort to tricks or big fireworks for impact, but instead, packs its punch through sheer brilliance of feeling and emotion .
I cannot wait to see what this author does next.

[Alecia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a beautifully written story of a tale that has been told many times before, but it is handled in a lovely, evocative manner. I took this book off a library shelf without knowing anything about it, and I got lucky. I really could not put it down, and I was quite moved. Harry and Madeleine Winslow are a golden couple, he a handsome and a literary success, she, an intelligent beauty. They have one son and are devoted to each other and are a real love match. They are priveleged, and love to entertain in their East Hampton home, where their numerous friends love them and bask in their glow. But then, along comes Claire, and Harry and Maddy take her under their wing. What follows is a story of lust, deception, and a tale of the disintegration of a beautiful marriage.

Dubow takes some devices from other writers. He has a narrator who is in love with Maddy, like the ones in The Great Gatsby and Sophie's Choice. And he has borrowed some tricks near the end from Ian MacEwan in Atonement. I would quibble that the ending is a tad overworked, and could have been cut down. But I found it moving, nonetheless.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Received this as a free ARE from bookbrowse.com and posted a similar review under their First Impressions section. This is a well-written debut novel about a National Book Award winning author and his almost perfect life. Although the book has a narrator similar to The Great Gatsby, I found the books to be different, as F.Scott Fitzgerald's characters were not given to as much introspection as these characters. Set in current NYC and its environs, the author seems to capture and portray the lives of his characters fairly realistically. I found this a compelling, quick read and while it strays into the genre of women's fiction, it is narrated by a man. Book clubs will find much to discuss, especially about the charcters and their motivations.

[Bonnie Brody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Indiscretion is one of the top ten books that I've read this year. It is a wonderful love story, a tale of betrayal and deceit, as well as a literary page-turner of the first order.

Told from the vantage point of Walter, the narrator of the novel, this is about Maddie and Harry, a married couple that met when students at Yale. They have been married for twenty years when the story opens. They have a son, Johnny, with heart problems. Walter has known Maddie all his life and has pined for her unrequitedly though she has deigned to be his best friend - Platonically.

Walter is a writer who has just won the National Book Award and they entertain in a Salon-like fashion, always with Harry and Maddie lovingly together. They have never, in fact, every spent a night apart in their marriage. People are drawn to them like moths to a flame.

Enter Claire, a 26 year old, with laughter like tinkling bells who falls in love with Harry and will not stop pursuing him. Is she young and innocent, prey to her impulses or is she the bad huntress, out to wreck this idyllic marriage to fill her own needs? Or is she just unaware of anything out of her line of sight?

As Walter narrates, getting a lot of his material through first-hand knowledge and the rest from a book that Harry is writing, we get a real sense of each character. Walter is an insular, lonely man, definitely of the upper class. In fact, almost every character in this book is of the upper class and they have trust funds and don't keep track of their money as they spend it on whatever pleases them. They reside in New York and the Hamptons, sometimes in Palm Beach. They are not one of `us'. They are all WASP's, of great lineage, education, and background. Schools are prep schools, Yale and then law school. Walter is an attorney who works in one of the most prestigious law firms in New York and as the book progresses, becomes senior counsel there. It works despite the potential for it to be cliché-ridden and over-the-top.

Harry is every man's man. He was a star hockey player in college, the first freshman to be selected for Yale's hockey team. He grew up on Shakespeare and Milton as his father taught English in a prep school. Maddie is strong-willed and individualistic. She is fearful of intimacy. Where Harry can keep a room laughing with his stories and enjoys being the center of attention, Maddie likes to keep a distance from the center of things and she likes to maintain self-control. She grew up with a father who drank a lot and went through wives quickly.

The book is written without any boring parts at all. I could not put it down. It is a populist book for real readers, and I don't mean to be an apologist for it. It grabbed me, held me down, and did not let go. I did not want to be freed. I wanted to read, read, read and find out what happens next. Speak to me Walter, I thought, and let me know what happens. Walter spoke, I listened, and ended up with an experience that is hard to duplicate.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

An extremely well-told tale on the most banal of themes acted out by utterly predictable characters. I hated myself for liking it as much as I did: the author writes well and keeps us spellbound. Beautiful couple (handsome Henry and gorgeous Maddie) with beautiful life (NYC apartment; Hamptons summer home; expensive educations; privileged upbringings; one an award-winning novelist and the other a gourmet cook) have their perfect life (perfect, except for son Johnny born with a weak heart -- but he's fine now, and of course is handsome and charming, just like his parents) destroyed by beautiful young woman (Claire) possessing je nais sai quoi -- but everyone she meets agree she's indefinably "special." She's so compelling that Henry has an affair with her. Shock! Never saw that coming. Though the author never provides insight into why either finds the other so compelling, we are supposed to believe it's not just sexual attraction -- it's looooove. (Eyeroll). A tragedy of Kennedy-esque proportions ensues. The survivors are never the same. The book is like People magazine trying to be literature. Or, gorging oneself on the finest French pastry. It's unarguably "the best" -- but ultimately it's just calories. Just as the pastry has no nutrition, the book has no substance and provides no insight other than a voyeuristic view into how the American 1% live.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 411 by Maria:

WOW people this is a must read and no one is telling me to tell you that. I was thoroughly pleased that I had this book in my To Be Read Pile.

I loved Indiscretion from the first paragraph. Beautifully detailed descriptions always get me and Charles Dubow knows how to paint a picture.

The story is narrative form by a third party of the book. Walter, is the third wheel to his best friends Harry and Maddy Winslow and godfather to their son.

Walter, Harry and Maddy are wonderful party folk and love entertaining their friends which is where we meet another main Claire. Claire is introduced to them by their friend and they eventually take her under their wings inviting her to spend time with them at their shore house.

The book is uniquely layered and full of depth. As the title declares we will embark on a journey of deceit. Maddy and Harry are a lovely couple, happy, engaging and loving life until a moment of weakness brings their world to a crushing stop.

What I loved most was how involved the reader becomes. You feel like Walter is telling you the story. He is talking directly to you and you are watching the events unfold.

Twists and turns had me completely engrossed in the story from the first to last page.

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A copy of Indiscretion was provided to me by William Morrow for review purposes.

Indiscretion
in·dis·cre·tion [in-di-skresh-uhn]
noun
1. The quality or state of being indiscreet; want of discretion; imprudence; rashness.
2. An indiscreet or imprudent act; indiscreet behavior.
3. A brief sexual liaison.

'His betrayal was as natural as a disease, as a cancer that builds up quietly inside the body and then erupts unbidden when there is nothing else to keep it in check. And when it happened, it consumed him.'

Indiscretion tells the story of the excitingly attractive couple Harry and Madeleine, and the seemingly innocent girl who came in to their lives only to destroy it completely. Claire became wholly absorbed in the lives of Harry and Madeleine equally, however, her love for Harry became much more prominent and as the story goes with many indiscretions, there was a moment of weakness which ended up spiraling out of control.

'...he has discovered that there is something more, something he had never known about before, an extra dimension where time and space exist on a different plane. Like an explorer who has discovered an earthly paradise, he has lost his taste for the world beyond and all he can think of is crossing the snow bridge back to Shangri-la.'

As Claire and Harry's fling continued it became clear that there was no turning back now and lives had already been irrevocably changed. But even if either of them could take back their actions, they had both become so intertwined in one another that life before the indiscretion became a blur, a life forgotten.

'Why am I the narrator of this story? I am because it is the story of my life - and of the people I love most. I have tried to be as scrupulous as possible in my telling of it. I wasn't a participant in everything that happened, but after I knew the ending, I had to fill in the missing pieces through glimpses that meant nothing to me at the time, memories that flash back with new significance, old legal pads, sentences jotted down in notebooks and on the backs of aging photographs.'

The narrator choice seemed quite unsuitable as Walter wasn't exactly one of the main characters but more like an onlooker reporting his findings. That's not particularly an issue in itself, but what was odd was the fact that many sections of the story never even involved him which left the question how he was able to remain a reliable narrator. Oftentimes there would be a random mentioning of 'Why do I know what happened? Well, Harry wrote it down. He's a writer and that's what he does and I read it and that's how I know' or something to that effect, It was a strange explanation and one that I didn't wholly accept. It seems the choice of narrator should be something that is flawlessly accepted which requires no specific explanation.

The author is a self-professed fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald and it is clear it has influenced his style of writing greatly. I would also compare the style of writing to Diana Tartt's 'The Secret History' and also the story itself slightly as it tells the story of wealthy individuals and their downfall. The key with this type of storyline is to draw the readers in and not only keep them interested and invested in the characters themselves but still manage to draw a certain amount of compassion for them. I don't believe Dubow succeeded as well as he had intended as the characters failed to derive any sort of sympathy from me. The writing still managed to be stunning as a whole and kept me enrapt while the pages flew. Indiscretion is Charles Dubow's debut novel and an impressive one at that.

*All quotes taken are from an uncorrected proof*

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is told from the perspective of the life long friend of the wronged spouse. A successful lawyer and friend of both the husband Harry and his wife Madeline, he can tell the story of each participant in the love triangle from personal knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Walter, the narrator, and Maddy grew up on adjacent properties in the Hamptons, both children of wealthy and privileged families. Maddy and Walter went to Yale, where Maddy and Harry, a popular athlete met and eventually married.

Maddy has become a charming hostess. She loves cooking and often entertains weekend guests at the family's summer home in the Hamptons. Harry, just as charming as Maddy, is a gregarious host who genuinely loves his wife and nine year old son. Walter, who still lives in the home where he was raised on the adjacent property, is a frequent guest and observer of the Winslows and their house guests. In their early 40's, Harry and Madeline are happy, secure in their wealth and talents. Harry is a respected prize winning author. Maddy's family money provides a steady income which compensates for the uneven income flow from writing and publishing.

But one summer one of their acquaintances brings a winsome young woman as his date to one of the Winslow parties. Both Harry and Maddy are captivated by her youth and confidence and enthusiasm for life. She soon breaks off with the man who had brought her into the Winslow circle, but she manages to become a part of their summer entourage, fitting in very comfortably in spite of the age difference. Clare is a writer too, and is gradually drawn to make a play for Harry. He does not immediately succumb to the temptation, but when he does, he is a wholehearted participant.

Dubow has created a superb story teller in Walter, who is excellent at telegraphing the motives of Claire, contrasting them to the nuances and responses of Harry and eventually Maddy's reaction when she comes to know of the affair. Though Walter admits (to us) that he has always loved Maddy, he tries to help salvage the marriage, which he knows has been a good one.

There is much to enjoy in this tale, but it in essence is a tragedy, as consequences few could have foreseen develop from a betrayal meant to be forever secret, and thus harmless in its effect on Harry's loved ones. This book reminds me of House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, another tragic story so very well told.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why do we always want more? What makes people willing to risk everything good they have in their lives for something new and forbidden? The themes that run through this novel are timeless and the story is not really different than many other stories we know (and often love). But with all its familiarity, this is a specific story with specific detail and it feels real and it feels important and it screams with all those feelings of betrayal and tragedy and mistakes and sadness that make every life on earth individual to its owner.

Walter Gervaise, the narrator of this story, is much like Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby. He is an intimate part of the story, but it is less his story than some else's. He is a trustworthy storyteller whose intimate involvement allows us to see each of the characters a little more clearly than we would if they were telling us about themselves. Each of them is so perfect and so flawed, and most of the them realize too late that the things they have are precious and the things they want are poison.

I loved this book so much. Nothing is better to me than becoming so immersed in the story that I begin to feel I know who the people are, what they are thinking and feeling, so that their pain sends physical shockwaves through my own soul. It is not so much the destination that this book arrives at that matters, it is more the journey the characters take to get there. Like Scarlett O'Hara, who keeps pushing her happiness away with both hands, I found in the pages of Indiscretion people whose self-destructive behaviors I could recognize. Lines crossed can never be uncrossed and no matter how much you pray or wish, you can never call back a hurt or a lie.

Indiscretion is not a timid book. It goes to the heart of passion and betrayal. I recommend it for anyone over 21 who finds the heart and human motivation sometimes hard to fathom. I am unsure what else Dubow might have written, but I am ready to read anything else he offers up.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Dubow's debut novel "Indiscretion" is a romance novel/tragedy that will tug at your heart strings & make you wonder about the choices we make in our relationships. It's the story of Harry & Madeline Winslow a happily married couple of 20 years who throw a party on summer in East Hampton, NY. It's there that there that Claire meets Harry & is instantly attracted to him. What begins as a simple dalliance turns into a full fledged affair which then tears the Winslows apart. Also involved is close family friend Walter who plays a larger role in the scheme of things once the affair is discovered. Dubow's story takes place across a year & covers 2 continents as he explores the intricacies of family & the desires of the affair. The characters are as real as any one of us & even with a child involved to add a realistic nature to the story. The story is easy to read & the emotions raw & a twist ending will surprise everyone as the ending while not being perfect is satisfying considering all that happens in the lives of these 4 individuals. A very well written debut which is set to be released in February 2013.