As Soon As It Rains - Hardcover

The daughter of the late author James Jones makes her debut in a novel about teenage Chloe Raymond, shattered by the death of her father, a famous playwright. Emotionally bankrupt by the loss of her husband, Chloe's mother cuts herself off from the girl and her younger brother. During her first year at college, feckless, spaced-out Chloe concentrates on sex with the student she thinks she loves, but during summer vacation carries on a hot, "no-strings" affair with a neighbor back home. Awkardly written, relying heavily on scatalogical language, the story is mawkish, ultimately boring. Signs that Chloe is maturing, applying herself to learning the craft of play-writing, are unconvincing; so too is her sudden awareness that her cold mother is capable of loving. There are flashes of Jones's potential as a novelist in a few character delineations, of what she can achieve as a storyteller when she gains perspective and linguistic skills. But here she fails to make one care what happens to anybody in the big cast.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Chloe Raymond, beautiful, intelligent, daughter of a famous playwright, has led what many would see as a charmed life. But during her senior year in high school her beloved father dies. Chloe eases her sorrow with drink, drugs, and indiscriminate sex. So begins the four- year saga of Chloe's college years, and that of a small group of friendsyears characterized by study, but also by co caine, booze, and sex. The adventures of the junior year in France are particu larly interesting as the Americans begin to see their country through the eyes of their foreign contemporaries. There are obvious parallels between Chloe and Kaylie, daughter of novelist James Jones. Even more intriguing are the echoes of his writing, as these young people, while swearing, drinking, and fornicating, seek meaning in their sus pended existence between carefree youth and responsible adulthood. Rec ommended. Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib., N.Y.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.