North Beach Nymph by Lew Lessing. Kozy Books (1960), 160 pp.
Ed Morgan is in his early thirties and starting a new life. He’s moved from Los Angeles to San Francisco, abandoned the hardware business for a chance to become a professional photographer, and needs to wait less than a year before his divorce becomes final. But thoughts of Myrna, his cold and cheating wife, have made him doubt that he’ll experience love again. His psychiatrist, Dr. Porter, encourages him to keep working on the issue. Ed, lonelier than ever, finally gets up the nerve to make a pass at Connie, an attractive young woman he sees at a café. He tells her how much he needs her and how wonderful their relationship would be. He’s stunned when she believes him and shows up at his apartment for hours of passionate sex. Soon feeling more confident around women, Ed hopes to meet someone more his type than Connie. She, however, does not intend to disappear.
Publishers like Kozy Books appeared around 1960 to provide mildly erotic stories to male readers. But because they were novels and not merely pornography, they needed to provide context for the parade of sex scenes. They needed to have a larger point. North Beach Nymph furnishes a good example. The author shows that marriages aren’t over when they’re over. A break-up may lead to dysfunctional changes in attitudes and behavior that continue long after a couple has separated. Ed continually recalls incidents in which his wife deceives and humiliates him. He is so fearful that he’ll never be able to trust another woman that he hires a psychiatrist to get his feelings back on track. The rest of the story may be implausible, but the point it raises is not.