From Publishers Weekly:
Bronx-born Nathaniel Dorn, long ago transplanted to San Francisco, is at age 62 a retired newspaperman with a leaky, unreliable heart as well as an unreliable son (a former dope addict) and a bisexual daughter, That's not all: his beloved wife has been dead for eight years and his lately beloved "shiksa" Gloria, age 66, wants a "vacation" from their quasi-marriage in order to work out her own multitude of head-problems and define her identity in the real world. Her therapist, who is also Nat's therapist, bears the unhappy surname Kaddish, which, almost too obviously, is the Hebrew prayer for the dead. (Even worse, Nat's dog is named Golem.) There seems no end to Nat's miseries: a troublesome prostate worsens alarmingly, requiring radical measures; his son lapses; and his daughter is raped and nearly killed. While some of the material here is handled capably, other scenes fail, especially those in which stricken Nat recalls the dead and speaks with them, not to mention his long-distance talks with an old Negro friend. Maudlin sentimentality makes it all seem all too familiar. On the way to the predictable happy ending, however, Grieg does manage to engage the reader's heartstrings.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal:
Set amidst the ostentatious glamour of turn-of-the-century luxury hotels and gambling casinos of Palm Beach and New York, this novel traces the ten-year bittersweet liaison between a pair of social misfits: Madeleine Memory, who has borne and given up an illegitimate child, is head housekeeper at Henry Flagler's new Royal Poinciana Hotel; and Harry Loring is a professional gambler. Various not-so-new concepts are pleasantly presented but never quite live up to their potential for fresh treatment, and too many secondary characters are forcefully introduced only to fade into oblivion. Reasonably enjoyable despite its shortcomings. Judith A. Gifford, Salve Regina Coll. Lib., Newport, R.I.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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