by Marilyn French
Like her angry earlier epic, The Women's Room, this second novel will strike a sympathetic chord with millions of women. The Bleeding Heart, though, is written with sadness for—and less anger about—the war between the sexes. It focuses on an affair between a prosperous, sensitive, married businessman and a single, liberated, middle-aged woman who is on a year's sabbatical in England. Though he is willing to leave his wife for her, she insists he must leave his wife for himself and endure the consequences. French may irritate some readers with her blunt style, but, admirably, she never compromises in the interest of a happy plot turn. Women will feel strengthened by her sturdy heroine. There may be some men who will be intimidated. Both may weep at the often sad state of man-woman relations. (Summit Books, $12.95)
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