FORGOTTEN BOOK: CLEMMIE

Clemmie by John D. McDonald (1958)

From the back cover of the paperback:

She was very young.

She was dangerous.

She was a girl who lived too close to the edge of violence.

She hunted trouble.

She was an exhibitionist, a body worshipper, a sensualist.

She was without morals, scruples, ethics.

She was beautiful.

She was CLEMMIE

Clementina Bennet was the only child of a rich (and probably amoral) man who simultaneously spoiled and ignored her.  When she was thirteen she was seduced by a college student.  When she was fifteen something terrible happened that remains unspoken and she was eventually institutionalized.  Now, at twenty-three, she is a fantasist living only for her whims and desires; she is incapable of being truly empathetic and thinks nothing of ruining a man's life and family.

Craig Fitz had a terrible childhood that he put behind him when he entered college, instead creating a completely imaginary background.  After receiving a wound that left him with a slight limp in the war, he met and married an English girl while recovering in London.  Back in America, he got a job with a national manufacturing company and rose to the position of production manager at one of its plants.  Thirteen years into the job, he has not moved forward in the company, nor has he really wanted to; he is satisfied with his life, his wife, their two daughters, and his work.  Known as a straight-shooter, he has earned the respect of his neighbors and his peers.  Scrimping money, Craig and his wife were able to afford a summer's trip to England for her and their two daughters kin order for them to meet their grandparents.  Alone for the summer, Craig was feeling lonely.

When a co-worker invited him out for drinks one night, things went terribly wrong.  Craig got  drunk and the even drunker co-worker was arrested and taken to jail.  That's when Craig met Clemmie, who fascinated with her youth and her sense of whimsey.  Without really realizing what was happening, Craig and Clemmie made love, probably the only time Craig was unfaithful to his wife.  Craig felt guilty but Clemmie wanted the relationship to continue, and slowly Craig slid into a life of infidelity.  Soon Craig was caught in a trap between wanting Clemmie and wanting to save his marriage.  Clemmie' philosophy was that, if one were feeling guilty, one must continue full bore doing whatever makes you; feel guilty; in doing this, sooner of later Craig's feelings for his wife would fall to the wayside.  Craig's guilt (and his wishy-washiness) were increased by his  burgeoning alcoholism, brought on by pressures at work that imperil his job and his future livelihood.

McDonald made his bones with paperback suspense novels in the fifties and sixties, but this one is more mainstream than suspense.  The question remains whether Craig can drag himself lout of the morass he has put himself in and whether he can save his marriage, or at least, his soul, or whether Clemmie will be able to destroy him completely.

The writing is good (it is McDonald, after all) but the book had an uncomfortable feel for me. I disliked the character of Clemmie for personal reasons:  I had meet too many people like her.  And Craig's absolute weakness of character set off negative vibes for me.  

Still, this has McDonald's trademark mid-century, middle America malaise all over it, and it is something he has done so well in the past.  Yet, for some reason I got the distinct feeling I was reading an Evan Hunter mainstream novel of the same period more than a John D. McDonald novel.

Your  mileage may well differ.