Happily married Oscar, a first violinist with the New York City Ballet, is smitten by Ginny, an ambitious young dancer in the corps. Oscar's wife, Ruth, senses that her husband is having an affair. And if that's not enough heartbreak for one woman, Ruth later walks in on their son Gabriel embracing Ginny. Gabriel is also married, of course.
Farcical elements aside, this is a story about ordinary people blindsided by powerful emotions. Telling a complex tale from five points of view, McDonough effectively limns the inner turmoil of richly developed characters. Dance lovers will swoon over the setting, but you don't need to know a battement from a relevé to enjoy this fascinating, deeply human novel. (Doubleday, $23.95)
Bottom Line: Raises the barre
By Patrick McGilligan
Dirty Harry gets covered with mud in biographer McGilligan's life of Clint Eastwood. Employing a deceptively low-key style, McGilligan voraciously tucks into the actor's flings with such costars as Jean Seberg and Frances Fisher and gleefully tallies the number of children—four—Eastwood fathered outside of marriage. But for every example of Eastwood's bad behavior, which the author piles up in clumps to make his point, there's a quote buried unobtrusively elsewhere refuting the subject's alleged penny-pinching tendencies, temper and penchant for cinematic violence. Busy grinding his axe, the author gives short shrift to East-wood's great cinematic legacy—his admirable habit of casting strong female leads (Tyne Daly's powerful turn in 1976's The Enforcer) and exploration of the enduring mythologies of American strength and justice over a five-decade career—but very long shrift indeed to discussions of "rape and kinky sex" in the films.
Despite the scandalous suggestions, the smiling TV cowhand on Rawhide who became an Academy Award-winning director remains a fascinating, complex but ultimately unknowable American icon, a man who was solitary and watchful on sets and stayed away from parties. As A Fistful of Dollars cowriter Luciano Vincenzoni put it, "His personality was very quiet. He is exactly the mysterious guy with the cigarillo. In life." (St. Martin's, $35)
Bottom Line: Zooms in on the bad and the ugly
By Patricia Gaffney
The Bella Sorella is one of those family-owned Italian restaurants that hasn't updated its menu or decor since Ronald Reagan was President. Proprietor Rose Fiore rightly believes its only hope is her niece Anna Catalano, a restaurateur who fled the fold ages ago and has a grudge against Rose. Fortunately, Rose's beau has a mysterious stepson. He's handsome. He's unattached.
Family and home are among the issues Gaffney deftly probes in this often illuminating third novel. It's a simple recipe, but Gaffney adds ingredients like a master chef for a fresh and filling story. (HarperCollins, $24.95)
Bottom Line: Smooth landing
By John Darnton
Beach book of the week
Does the mind exist after the body dies? Are there rational explanations for intuition and paranormal events? Is the soul really more than a feeling? These questions are at the core of Darnton's thoroughly engrossing medical-science novel.
When Scott Jessup's son Tyler suffers a brain injury while hiking, the brilliant but arrogant brain surgeon Dr. Saramaggio takes the case. But a diabolical colleague, the aptly named Dr. Cleaver, has darker plans for Tyler.
Combining stem-cell research with computers that take over bodily functions, Cleaver tries to find out whether, as one character puts it, "the mind has a capacity to range beyond the physical vessel that seemingly contains it." Bizarre experiments to trap the mind's energy even lead to communication with spirits on the Net. "You've got mail" never sounded scarier.
Brain surgery actually is brain surgery, which leads to complex medical passages, but Darnton skillfully navigates those while keeping the suspense at full throttle. The science and cyber-philosophy, at first farfetched, become all too chillingly believable in the author's expert hands. (Dutton, $25.95)
Bottom Line: Mind blower
- Contributors:
- Annette Weisman,
- Arion Berger,
- Debby Waldman,
- Joe Heim.
CELINE’S INFERTILITY STRUGGLE: MY PRIVATE HEARTBREAK
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