FALLING BODIES

The text reads, "Try the blueberry muffins, my specialty . . ." meaning, "Try my special: blueberry muffins." The narrator reads it as if it means, "Try the muffins, my darling." This at once typifies what's wrong with this text and its reader, the former being a limp, melancholy, soupy peon to the ordinary, and the latter being too unctuous, anemic and somnolent. Both author and reader attempt sensitivity and depth, falling far short. A physicist escaping the memory of his family, slain in an auto acident, comes upon a quaint inn owned by a compelling woman with her own psychic trauma. Can the platitudes they hurl at each other bring them love and healing? For fans of New Age sententiousness only. Y.R. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 99]