The Kindness of Strangers, by Stanley Baron (1961)

One thing that’s fascinated me as an adult is how often the traditional concept of family and reality come into conflict. Tolstoy suggested that all happy families are alike, but from my experience unhappy families often are, too, for in an unhappy family there’s usually at least one person who’s dying to get out. And I’m not sure that Tolstoy got it right about happy families, either. Some of the happiest families I’ve encountered are the untraditional families created when strangers find a bond that’s stronger than any blood ties. Stanley Baron’s slim 1961 novel, The Kindness of Strangers, is an example. Set in Cannes in the off-season, the story is about two people who find themselves forming an odd and unexpected family when their paths accidentally cross. Milly Grace is a wealthy 40-ish American, the surviving mistress of a man who loved her deeply but never married her. Milly’s days are filled with monotonous luxury: massages, beauty treatments, a drink at a seaside cafe, a…