Saving Grace

Grace, tricked into betraying her beloved politician father by the man she loves, finds herself wanting revenge, in a novel of seduction, treachery, love, and political scandal

In the political arena, dangers come from unpredictable foes as well as from recognized adversaries, a proposition Rogan ( Cafe Nevo ) vividly illustrates in this tale about basically good people in the grip of ambition and greed. Jonathan Fleishman, once an idealistic civil rights activist and now Democratic leader of a fictional New York City borough, is under investigation by the DA's office for extortion and influence peddling. One of his best friends, Lucas Rayburn, heads the DA's office and another, Michael Kavin, is already prepared to testify against Jonathan. Barnaby, a cocky reporter who's covering the story, sleeps with Fleishman's strong-willed 18-year-old daughter, Grace, in order to get the inside story. Like Jonathan, who refuses to perceive his moral decline and believes he's simply playing the games of politics, Barnaby dismisses criticism that he's breached the boundaries of professional journalism. As Fleishman's life begins to unravel, Grace is sent to Israel and her mother develops a brain tumor. With the disruption of each character's value system comes the realization that good and evil are rarely defined with clarity. In her well-plotted and readable story, Rogan offers discerning comments on friendship, love, marriage and family. But given the novel's premise that there are no simple answers, the conclusion--an epilogue set 18 years later--seems facile.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A noisy domestic drama--set in the environs of New York City and Israel--in which a family is torn apart by the father's political ruin. Again, as in the author's Cafe Nevo (1987) and Changing States (1981), Israel offers a challenge and a vision that, here, will unlock a heart and provide a future. The household headed by Jonathan Fleishman, much admired Democratic Party leader with a past of civil-rights activism, is not a happy one. Wife Lily, remote but always gently supportive, is as helpless as Jonathan in the face of the rage of 18-year-old Grace, always ``a fighter and survivor,'' always her father's favorite. Like grandmother Clara, son Paul is an ``uncompromising materialist,'' but, unlike Clara, Paul has no commitment to family (Paul has a few stupid/nasty lines, then splits for good). Now Jonathan--given the shoulder by daughter Grace because, in spite of all his noble sentiments, he'd sold their home in a newly black neighborhood--is in deep trouble. Old friends have squealed, the media is rumbling, and the law is about to accuse him of extortion and influence-peddling--things that ``everybody does.'' Reporter Barnaby sleeps with Grace, and elicits a family secret. Thumbscrews, meanwhile, are being twisted on Jonathan's reputation; Lily is dying of a brain tumor; and then Grace, sent to Israel to stay at a kibbutz with Aunt Tamar and her adopted son Micha, is lost in a Judean desert. The Book of Job, not surprisingly, comes to mind. Finally, Jonathan delivers a high-decibel confession to a jury, sacrificially inviting the clink; Lily dies; and Grace has her angst cured by Israel, where there's a ``saving attachment to place.'' There's also Micha--strong, brave, with a cleft in his chin, etc. An earnest novel, but simplistic in characterization. One cannot believe in these theatric people, who seem to have only one stance and one dimension. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Rogan's ( Cafe Nevo; Changing States) third novel is the book that Bonfire of the Vanities tried to be and just missed. She takes a similar master of the universe character and, Job-like, batters him with hardship till bitter truths and their consequences leave him humbled and purified. The most potent instrument of fate is Grace, his daughter. Her childish yet stern morality triggers a titanic battle between her father, an apparently Mr. Clean politician in New Jersey, and the reporter and prosecutors who investigate his deeply secret corruption. The venue is not Wall Street, but privilege and power are the trophies. Like Wolfe, Rogan is no minimalist and comfortably packs her story with complications and characters so that her readers are quickly enmeshed and will be staying up all hours to see what happens next. An intelligent and disciplined novel that gets to the heart of family loyalty and public conscience without losing a jot of readability and sheer enjoyment.
- Barbara Conaty, Library of Congress
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.