THEME
A man reveals his many and varied romantic encounters with
women.
INTRODUCTION
Strangers When We Part, a romantic fiction, is a man's search-for-
love story, analogous to Melissa Bank’s The Girl’s Guide to
Hunting and Fishing, plus technical touches like Tom Clancey and
surprise endings similar to O. Henry.
A subset was a finalist in the James Jones First Novel Contest.
From boyhood to experienced adult, our nameless, universal hero
engages girls and women in his travels. But fate frustrates our
hero, reminiscent of Paul Simon’s melancholy song 50 Ways to
Leave Your Lover.
SYNOPSIS
In Strangers When We Part, our nameless hero is like many men, is
perhaps the universal man. From early boyhood to experienced
adult, he seeks a soul mate, a woman to love completely and
forever. When he finds her, will he and she love happily ever after?
In each of twenty-four independent stories, reveries, poems, and
limericks, we meet a different woman and get a different answer
that partially reveals the man. Although each chapter stands alone,
it is interrelated to others by characters and chronology.
Our hero is eager and open to love in many forms and finds the
search for love both exciting and challenging. He is off to an
auspicious start when he is only four years old with the happy
discoveries of the sexy girl across the street and the lovable girl next
door. They are followed by the new girl in seventh grade who
triggers Sister Mary Crux's jealousy, the party girl and her
pedagogical mother across the tracks, and the co-star in the high
school play. He discovers his manhood with the bully’s moll. He
hits pay dirt with the gold-miner’s daughter and even with the girl
who leaves him at the altar.
Hitchhiking around the world, he finds a fabulous Fräulein behind
the Iron Curtain and a Greek tragedy below the Acropolis. In
Silicon Valley he pursues R&D with women who often are on a
similar search at conferences, on the farm and freeway, in the
airport, and on the net. These are women he wants to love, perhaps
could love, maybe does love.
Always optimistic, ever glad for the women he has known, he is
finally and fully rewarded with true and certain love.
CHAPTER TITLES AND SUBTITLES
Dedication
Love Life
Prolog
When do you know?
French Pastry
Darla, the girl on the other side of the tracks
Pall or Fail
Donna’s none like a nun
Play Time
With Jilli, “… the play’s the thing …”
Valley Girl
My pet Bunny
Turn the Other Cheek
Fighting for Carly’s Love
Go East Young Man
Be careful with Arian or it’s curtains – of iron
It’s Greek to Me
Old lace and ouzo and CC
The First Shall Be Last
With Triny, young love does last
Crackers
Big appetite for Ritzy, the girl of my dreams
Close Call
Ivana’s wrong number may be right
Fast Lane
Jan makes a pass on the pass
Full Spectrum
Desiré is a rainbow of delights
Three’s Company
A stimulating ménage à trios with Jack and Jill
Salad Days
However you slice it, she finds it’s hard to swallow
Quick Change
An ATM pays dividends for me but not Jane Dough
The Daughter’s Farmer
Sweet corn in Eve’s garden
Flight Lines
Fanatic friend or friendly fanatic
Cruisin’
Tough Christian love
Hair Net
Blondie, I love her with the hair I love
First Class
Bala’s a corresponding woman
Reunion Renewal
Now Jennifer and I know what we knew then
Young At Heart
Oh Joy, you kid
Emale
It’s a nerd. It’s a brain. It’s Super-duo!
Faster than a speeding bulletin!
More powerful than a local net!
Able to leap tall tales in a single bound!
A Spin on Orbital Mechanics
Nature gave us problems three:
The physical universe, intelligence, and biology
Epilog
Now I know
A man reveals his many and varied romantic encounters with
women.
INTRODUCTION
Strangers When We Part, a romantic fiction, is a man's search-for-
love story, analogous to Melissa Bank’s The Girl’s Guide to
Hunting and Fishing, plus technical touches like Tom Clancey and
surprise endings similar to O. Henry.
A subset was a finalist in the James Jones First Novel Contest.
From boyhood to experienced adult, our nameless, universal hero
engages girls and women in his travels. But fate frustrates our
hero, reminiscent of Paul Simon’s melancholy song 50 Ways to
Leave Your Lover.
SYNOPSIS
In Strangers When We Part, our nameless hero is like many men, is
perhaps the universal man. From early boyhood to experienced
adult, he seeks a soul mate, a woman to love completely and
forever. When he finds her, will he and she love happily ever after?
In each of twenty-four independent stories, reveries, poems, and
limericks, we meet a different woman and get a different answer
that partially reveals the man. Although each chapter stands alone,
it is interrelated to others by characters and chronology.
Our hero is eager and open to love in many forms and finds the
search for love both exciting and challenging. He is off to an
auspicious start when he is only four years old with the happy
discoveries of the sexy girl across the street and the lovable girl next
door. They are followed by the new girl in seventh grade who
triggers Sister Mary Crux's jealousy, the party girl and her
pedagogical mother across the tracks, and the co-star in the high
school play. He discovers his manhood with the bully’s moll. He
hits pay dirt with the gold-miner’s daughter and even with the girl
who leaves him at the altar.
Hitchhiking around the world, he finds a fabulous Fräulein behind
the Iron Curtain and a Greek tragedy below the Acropolis. In
Silicon Valley he pursues R&D with women who often are on a
similar search at conferences, on the farm and freeway, in the
airport, and on the net. These are women he wants to love, perhaps
could love, maybe does love.
Always optimistic, ever glad for the women he has known, he is
finally and fully rewarded with true and certain love.
CHAPTER TITLES AND SUBTITLES
Dedication
Love Life
Prolog
When do you know?
French Pastry
Darla, the girl on the other side of the tracks
Pall or Fail
Donna’s none like a nun
Play Time
With Jilli, “… the play’s the thing …”
Valley Girl
My pet Bunny
Turn the Other Cheek
Fighting for Carly’s Love
Go East Young Man
Be careful with Arian or it’s curtains – of iron
It’s Greek to Me
Old lace and ouzo and CC
The First Shall Be Last
With Triny, young love does last
Crackers
Big appetite for Ritzy, the girl of my dreams
Close Call
Ivana’s wrong number may be right
Fast Lane
Jan makes a pass on the pass
Full Spectrum
Desiré is a rainbow of delights
Three’s Company
A stimulating ménage à trios with Jack and Jill
Salad Days
However you slice it, she finds it’s hard to swallow
Quick Change
An ATM pays dividends for me but not Jane Dough
The Daughter’s Farmer
Sweet corn in Eve’s garden
Flight Lines
Fanatic friend or friendly fanatic
Cruisin’
Tough Christian love
Hair Net
Blondie, I love her with the hair I love
First Class
Bala’s a corresponding woman
Reunion Renewal
Now Jennifer and I know what we knew then
Young At Heart
Oh Joy, you kid
Emale
It’s a nerd. It’s a brain. It’s Super-duo!
Faster than a speeding bulletin!
More powerful than a local net!
Able to leap tall tales in a single bound!
A Spin on Orbital Mechanics
Nature gave us problems three:
The physical universe, intelligence, and biology
Epilog
Now I know
Peter A Berardo, PhD
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| STRANGERS WHEN WE PART |