Stray | 
| Author: Sheri Joseph
Publisher: MacAdam Cage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $11.90
You Save: $2.10 (15%)
Rating:  4 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 444
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 1596922702
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781596922709
ASIN: 1596922702
Publication Date: February 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A man is torn between his perfect wife and a fascinating young man in an unconventional, inescapable love triangle. Thirty-year-old Kent McKutcheon has come to Atlanta with little ambition beyond his earnest desire to grow up and be a good person. But after a year of contented, stable existence with his Mennonite wife, Maggie, a defense attorney with a passion for social justice, Kent has failed to eradicate his private longing for Paul, the lover who abandoned him three years before. When an accidental meeting resuscitates their affair, the passion they share privately soon threatens to destroy the public persona each man has created. Paul is a promising acting student who is unhappily bound to another man, a much older, ailing college professor who is failing to provide the love and sense of family which Paul now realizes he wants. A former wild-child, he craves the aura of home and stability that Kent seems to have with his wife. Frustrated with Kent s guilt-ridden angst and repeated efforts to end their affair, and eager to find the sense of love and comfort which seems otherwise unavailable in his world, Paul pushes closer to Kent s marriage, ultimately developing a fixation on Maggie herself. In a single night that slips out of control, the volatile mix of emotions leads to murder, and all three characters are suddenly more involved with each other s lives than they could have foreseen, and none can hope to escape unscathed.
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| Customer Reviews:
wonderful characters February 25, 2008
book.of.the.moment (USA)
This book far surpassed my expectations; after reading the book jacket, I expected a story of a classic love triangle. Bob loves Mary but Mary loves Jack you know? While there is an traingular element to "Stray," its so much more than that.
The story revolves around three characters: Kent, the married musician who has never truly gotten over Paul, a lover from his past who just walked out on him one day. Paul, the young actor, who can't commit or take anything too seriously, and finally, Maggie, Kent's kind hearted wife, who unwittingly gets stuck in the middle.
Kent is pretty content with his life. His job is good, his marriage is good...life is good. One day he unexpectedly runs into Paul, and the inner turmoil starts to run rampant. Paul and Kent begin a passionate affair, all the while Kent makes it clear that he is happy with his wife and has no intentions of leaving. Out of curiousity and jealousy, Paul inserts himself into Maggie's life. The two become fast friends, and Maggie comes to care for Paul immensely; all the while not knowing that Paul is also sleeping with her husband.
In addition to the emotional rollercoaster of a plot, there's a bit of a murder mystery thrown in as well. Paul lives with an older man, Bernard, who is dying of cancer. Paul returns from the club one night to find Bernard dead, and himself the prime suspect. While this aspect of the plot does keep the story moving forward, and the relationships developing, its not a crucial part.
The strongest part of this book is the author's ability to develop her characters. The development isn't rushed, and each and every detail that we learn of the character adds to the story and makes the whole thing come together. Joseph has created three very different, very likeable, very real characters, and they are what makes this story a good one.
Well-written tale of a unique love triangle July 6, 2007
Bob Lind (Phoenix, AZ United States)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
A friend had strongly recommended this, Ms. Joseph's first novel. When it arrived, it looked a bit daunting, coming in at 446 pages (not 375, as listed on Amazon). But, as I had been told, it is written so well, with realistic flawed but likeable characters, that the reading went very quickly.
In brief, "Stray" tells the story of a love triangle, between a married couple in their early 30's, and the husband's 21 year old former male lover. Paul re-enters Kent's life after an absence of three years, creating a spark between them that soon has Kent sneaking away from Maggie (who is a busy attorney working as a public defender) to spend time with him, although he still makes it clear to Paul that their relationship is over and nothing can become of their trysts. Paul would like to put it behind him as well, but he never stopped loving Kent, and hoping for some kind of miracle that would bring them back together.
Desperate to find out more about his "competition", Paul worms his way into their lives, by befriending Maggie and volunteering to help at the thrift store she operates for her Mennonite church. Maggie invites him home with her to "meet" Kent, who immediately fears that Paul will reveal their earlier and extramarital affair, but Paul simply wants to be a part of both of their lives. When Paul is arrested, following the unexplained murder of his former roommate and benefactor, whom he met as his college acting professor, Maggie jumps in to defend him against the charge, eventually providing him with a place to live, courtesy of her church. As is clearly inevitable, Maggie finally manages to connect the dots and finds out the truth about Paul's relationship with Kent, which puts the forgiving nature of her church's teachings to the ultimate test.
Some novel twists and turns shade this as significantly more interesting than the typical "love triangle" story. Lots of peripheral characters who don't seem to have a role at first, and would have liked to have seen it at least 50-75 pages shorter. But a great, captivating read for a long vacation during these hot summer days. Four stars out of five.
A surprisingly terrific read May 2, 2007
Jay Lesiger (New York City)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Whether you're reading a book or watching a play or a movie or a tv show, the bottom line is, to me, always about the writing. Yes, you can cover up with convoluted plot detail, or a great performance, or flashy direction or camera angles, but ultimately nothing matters more than the writing. It's the single aspect that pierces the heart and the soul (when it's good, that is; when it's not, it is a very depressing experience). Beyond that, the element of suprise makes a work special; when everything that happens seems right but not predictable. THE SOPANOS, at its best, falls into this category: a well-written series that generally is elevated by its lack of predictability.
STRAY falls into that category, too. Not a work for the ages, perhaps, and certainly, the gay/straight/bisexual plot has its moments of predictable twists and turns that sometimes are strictly melodrama in place of art. But there is an honesty and a tenderness in the writing, even in its most violent passages, that overrides the somewhat purple plot points and carries this novel forward. Ms. Joseph really can write, and write very well, and even when you sort of know what's going to happen, there is a passion to her writing, almost a breakneck speed that propels the reader through more than 400 pages, hating to put the book down. I was never sure how this would end, and I teared up when it did, sorry that it was over, and wanting to send a copy to a friend.
That makes it a pretty special book.
 "You have something more with her, I suppose." March 12, 2007
Luan Gaines (Dana Point, CA USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
In a mix of unexpected passion and the beguilement of a happy marriage, three people are thrust into a heartbreaking situation with no easy resolution. Kent engaged in a volatile, obsessive relationship with the decade-younger Paul, the attraction between them irresistible. It ended abruptly. Three years later the two men come face to face in a library in Atlanta, both stunned by the feelings that surface, drawn back to an impossible yearning to be with one another. Now Paul is twenty-one, beginning a promising acting career and jaded by his lifestyle, living with a professor/mentor, Bernard, who is slowly dying of cancer. More to the crux of the dilemma, Kent has married. A Mennonite and a lawyer, Maggie is everything Kent has imagined in a wife, a truly remarkable person who actually lives her belief of daily forgiveness, letting "God sort out the casualties". Crazy with envy, Paul is desperate to hang on to Kent, his former cruel insouciance gradually chipped away by a love he has yet to acknowledge, trapped in a wasteful lifestyle of excess and self-indulgence.
For his part, Kent is helpless to resist, bifurcating his existence to survive a growing entanglement with Paul while protecting his marriage. Maggie is the innocent, unsuspecting. Impulsively, Paul seeks Maggie out, making friends, volunteering his services with her church group; at first merely curious, Paul is strangely seduced by Maggie (Magdalena) for the same reasons as Kent, her spirit a balm to his own troubled soul. It is the subtle influence of Maggie's influence on both Kent and Paul that gives the novel its note of grace. What would be damning behavior is transformed through her ministrations as a lawyer and as a compassionate woman, allowing Paul to trust someone he has grievously harmed by his association with Kent. Kent fully realizes Maggie's extraordinary value in his life; it is to a great degree why he struggles to deny his passion for Paul, because Maggie is worth a good life, because those who know her are blessed.
With a shocking murder as the catalyst for the inevitable denouement of this triangle, the protagonists are confounded by a predicament with no acceptable solution, the existing emotional tension unbearable, yet exquisitely rendered by this gifted author. Transcending sexual stereotypes, these souls are faced with painful decisions, three sundered by reality into two, an unbearable choice to be made. Skillfully blending the prose of tortured love and potentially agonizing loss, the pages of this remarkable novel dance to a rhythm of their own. Luan Gaines/ 2007.
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