The Reserve [Paperback]

I still can't believe this Mills and Boonesque chick-lit dirge is by the same guy who gave us The Sweet Hereafter and Rule of The Bone. Admittedly I only made it to page 124, though how I got that far is still a mystery to me.

The bit when I realised I was reading the wrong book: "No," he said. "Don't think like that." And he kissed her again, and she closed her eyes and opened herself to him again.

I mean, purlease.

Others might enjoy this book, I think what kept me going as far as I did was the fact there's a half-decent story in there somewhere. Perhaps from page 125 onwards, the story starts to come to life. But I'll never know. Someone please tell me others of his (Cloudsplitter, Continental Drift; I've read The Darling, went on too long, at no point did I care one iota for the main character) are better than this?

Awash with Hollywood sensibility, The Reserve with all of its over-the-top melodrama remains a compelling study of adultery, murder, and sexual and emotional obsession. Possessed of an unashamedly cinematic quality, Banks' novel is peppered with an assortment of colourful characters: the misunderstood artist, the brooding and gruff mountain guide, the beautiful, but half-crazy young heiress, and the wealthy matriarch who holds a long-buried family secret.

In the Tamarack Lake area of the Adirondacks, a place of dark and lonely Nordic thoughtfulness a vast space opens up between lake and forest and mountain and sky when nine people are gathered to celebrate Dr. Cole's 1936 annual Fourth of July Celebration. Here at Rangeview, the largest of only half-dozen rough-hewn log camps, a few of which are elaborately luxurious, Carter and Evelyn Cole wine and dine with their eminently well-connected friends, the men and their wives who have made a great deal of money buying and selling stocks and bonds in the roaring 1920's.

Also in attendance is Vanessa, the Coles' only child. Adopted and at thirty, married and divorced twice, Vanessa has remained childless, "barren," as she puts it. A disconsolate and rather wayward, girl, she's more content to walk by the rocky seashore with a soft wind sifting the tall pines behind her, than join her parents in their patriotic festivities. For months now, Vanessa has been unhappy, perhaps because she's realized that this scene with her parents and their well-to-do friends is just not hers anymore.

This is a world where the mountains and forests and lakes and streams are held for the exclusive use and enjoyment of members and their guests, and is off-limits to strangers and tourists. So Vanessa is surprised when she hears an airplane growing louder in the distance, a seaplane with two large pontoons that touches down on the far side of the lake. When the pilot introduces himself as Gordon Groves, Vanessa immediately recognizes the famous artist.

Known mostly for his graphic work - woodcuts, etchings, prints, Groves has become increasingly known, both in the United States and the Soviet Union for his radical leftist politics. Of course, the attraction between Jordan and Vanessa is instant, and as her cheek nearly brushes him and pulls away, neither of them can deny this electric sexual energy that passes between them, and in typically rebellious fashion, she begs him to take her for a ride in the airplane.

When he lets her fly dangerously close to the mountains, and then leaves her to walk alone back to her family's cabin, the stage is set for a battle of wills. For Jordan proves to be totally enraptured by the heiress and enveloped by a light that seems to emanate from inside her. When an incident at the club Tamarack Club Estates, involving her angers him, he blames her for what she thought she knew about him. Then an unusual request from her charts him on a course, which ends up threatening his marriage to his beloved Alicia.

Banks fills his pages with shame and remorse and broken-down marriages. Jordan ends up finding himself caught in secrets and lies, rumors and gossip, while the author paints a portrait of an egocentric man, blindsided by his own arrogant self-image. In the end all is mired in histrionics and melodrama, kidnapping and imprisonment, with the plot hinging on a fatal accident involving a shot gun and a set of lurid photos - possibly kiddie porn that may or may not exist - and a fire that proves to be the climax to the events of this over-the-top but always entertaining novel. Mike Leonard March 08.

This novel centers on a Hemingway-type action man artist/writer who is not only an egoist, hard drinker and strong with his fists but also a ladies' man with a soft heart.

Just as Hemingway ended his domestic and personal problems by shooting himself, the main character resolves his by setting off on a suicidal mission to the Spanish Civil War. (Don't worry, I'm not giving the plot away as this is all apparent from the beginning.)

The book is set in the mountainous Adirondack region in New York state in the mid-30s where a Lady Chatterley-like affair is going on between the artist's wife and a local guide while he is about to embark on an affair with an unbalanced ex-countess.

"Embark" is the right word as he whizzes around in his private plane and is constantly taking off from and landing on isolated lakes deep in the forest while literally overseeing what is happening on the ground.

In one Thomas Hardy-type scene, he even looks down from the heavens (like God himself) and sees his wife furtively posting a letter to her lover.

The plot combines adultery, violence, insanity, alcoholism, allegations of sexual perversion and American-style class distinctions. As if this were not enough, the story is accompanied by parallel scenes set in Europe which were too obscure for me to follow.

The book gets off to a good start as it introduces us to the main characters and sets the scene. However, it goes off course quickly as the insanity of the ex-countess is revealed and her involvement with the artist and guide play out and come to an almost farcical climax.

The ending is simply unconvincing and too pat for what I imagine is meant to be a serious work.

Nevertheless, I would recommend it if only because it is about 100% more alive and vibrant than anything UK-based writers produce nowadays.