A Truce With Time

Pat Landry struggles with professional and romantic failure and the ghosts of members of his late family as he tries to form a relationship with Lauren Hodge, a successful woman in control of her life

Falling somewhere between a conventional romance novel and tepid fantasy fiction, Godwin's latest effort is a lackluster affair. Pat Landry, a writer of historical romances, falls in love with Lauren Hodge, a prizewinning video artist. Their courtship progresses from Soho loft parties to trendy Manhattan restaurants and clubs, and finally to bed, usually at her apartment. Pat and Lauren, both 50, carry a lot of emotional baggage. Lauren's mother is dying of Alzheimer's disease; her daughter disapproves of her lifestyle. Pat, an alcoholic, is in a quandary about whether to accept a book contract that represents a sellout. Moreover, he is, literally, haunted by the ghosts of his parents and siblings, who actively take over his life. Scenes involving the Landry clan, both past and present, are interspliced with the central narration, a device that loses its edge very soon. The result is a tense, painful novel, with only scattershot effectiveness.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The unresolved conflicts of his childhood haunt novelist Pat Landry as he attempts to surmount a case of writer's block and work out a relationship with a loving but strong-willed woman. He finds himself "visited" by his long-dead parents and siblings (actual ghosts, not just memories), who re-enact the crises and clashes of his stormy childhood, as well as events before his birth. Seeing them from this perspective, Pat comes to understand the forces that formed him; in a final confrontation with his teenage self, all things are made clear, leaving the reader with the impression that his problems are solved. The ghost twist is an artificial and annoying device in a dreary, unexceptional novel about a man who has trouble with women because of an over-possessive mother. Marcia R. Hoffman, M.L.S., Hoechst Celanese Corp., Somerville, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.