Pacific Tremors
Though focused on Southern California and the film industry, this novel covers a lot of geographic and emotional ground. Renowned director Ezra Keneret and his longtime friend, film historian Wendell Spear, both realize that their creative and productive days are nearly over. The specters of physical disability and loss of vocation provide tension of one sort, while flashbacks and flash-forwards reveal familial problems. The interlacing viewpoints of the many secondary characters serve to underscore the power as well as the fragility of relationships. Mirroring the unsteady emotional condition of those living on the Pacific Rim, the title is fitting. Both Keneret and Spear are bright, sophisticated, dedicated men, even honorable for the most part. Their domestic and professional histories, as well as the inside look into movie-making, are skillfully revealed in this well-written and finely imagined novel. Stern is the Helen Regenstein Professor of English at the University of Chicago and has been publishing fiction, poems, essays, and drama since 1960. Recommended for all libraries. Jack Hafer, Chesterfield Cty. Lib. Syst., VACopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.