Attic Light
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
This first novel charts the tragic path of a writer, Kate, and an archaeologist, Nick, as romance blooms among the ruins of Greece, then fades and is later restored in California, even after Kate has married another man. Kate’s attraction to Nick is immediate, and she quits her job as a travel writer to stay with him on a paradisiacal Greek island. But Nick’s diffidence and refusal to tie himself down eventually defeat her, and she flees back to America to marry Henry, a man she had formerly abandoned. Not surprisingly, Kate is quickly dissatisfied with Henry and longs for the more adventurous and challenging Nick, who conveniently returns to Berkeley. But Nick hasn’t changed, and even as they start an affair he seems to toy with Kate’s emotions, finally pushing her to a crisis when she discovers that she is pregnant.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The sun is hot, the sand is white and the bodies are tanned, but this tale of sexual obsession never gets the mercury to budge. Travel writer Kate consummates her liaison with sullen archeologist Nick after he says to her, halfway through their first meal, "Let's find a bed, shall we?" At his remote island retreat in the southern Aegean, various overeducated friends drop by for meals worthy of Julia Child and conversations that sound like Ph.D. dissertations. It's implied that the characters have great sex, but only once do we actually read about any. When Kate flings open a door one evening and finds Nick with a lithe young thing, she leaves him to marry safe boyfriend Henry, but she can't stay away from Nick for long, and eventually her addiction leads to violence. We're supposed to plumb the depths of Kate's soul and understand why she needs Nick. But depths are hard to find as first-time novelist Burnham casts us adrift in a sea of two-dimensional characters and flat, predictably "exotic" details. Next time, more passion--and hold the moussaka.
