A 1970s novel about 1950s values - but will they explode? Light Years

James Salter's "Light Years" really does feel very old-fashioned - up to a point. Though it was published in 1975, it's set in the 1950s and clearly has the 50s values and mind set: a totally male-dominated world in which men are priapic and full of sexual ambition and conquest, women are basically shoppes and consumers and sex objects, and children are more or less ignored, kind of disposable props that give a family the right domestic look and balance. Everybody seems to have plenty of money, though they complain about money, and nobody seems to work very hard - languorous lunches and afternoon sexual interludes seem to be just a part of daily life. And yet - Salter does have 20 years of distance on his material and I detect a certain satiric or even rebellious undercurrent that I think he may develop as the plot courses, or more aptly meanders along. When the main character, a Manhattan architect named Viri, begins a tryst with his secretary, I thought - here we go, another male-fantasy novel, what would she see in him, other than his authority over her, couldn't she do better? And then - surprise - Viri's beautiful wife, Nedra, is having an affair as well - so they have secrets from each other and this seeming smooth marital veneer is full of cracks and fissures. And, then, 2nd surprise, Viri drops in on secretary (Kaya - can't anyone be named Bob or Jane in a novel?, esp in the 50s?) - and she's with someone, she won't let him in. Good for her! - and for the novel - we'll see what tensions develop, or explode.