Desire - Hardcover

The future of Lily van Velsen, San Francisco pearl "doctor" and gemologist, looks assured, given her recent engagement to her goodnatured colleague Alan Purdue. But once she begins reading the diaries that recount many of her ancestors' illicit romances and their relationships with demon lovers, she is driven toward a dark destiny of her own, in the form of an affair with artist Johnny Penthe and a yearning for the opium that can calm her spirit. Only when thus "purified" can she cut the "pearl of Celebes," which carries a curse or blessing for its owner. The perfect sphere inside a natural pearl is revealed by the skillful peeling away of the layers that hide it--and this is also how it is with Wallace's haunting concoction of stories within stories in this unusually compelling first novel. (The daughter of Irving Wallace, her previous efforts include The Prodigy , a biography). Itself like an opium dream, the book hypnotically pulls the reader into its mysterious erotic core, never taking the cheap or easy way. Depicting the obsessions that drive people to fulfill or deny their hearts' desires, Wallace demonstrates that the answer can come in the shape of sacred or profane love--or, sometimes, a rare blue pearl.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A first novel from Wallace, author of The Prodigy and member of the prolific writing family (Irving Wallace is her father). The interesting parts of this novel tell about the pearl business, from diving for them to sculpting and designing them. The tedious parts, unfortunately, come from the story line itself. The heroine, a skilled jewelry designer and heir to a jewelry business, is a bored, self-indulgent woman who seeks excitement in a self-destructive love affair and opium addiction. The disjointed narrative alternates between her story and the diaries and letters of her family: as she reads them, she learns that the women of her family have also destroyed themselves for love; she also learns the hidden truth about her own birth. Not recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/90.
- Marylaine Block, St. Ambrose Univ., Davenport, Ia.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.