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Spanning the years 1911 to 1983 and covering the globe as well, this thinly stretched saga ultimately fragments under the burden of countless subplots and diversions. Four family groups are driven from their homes by world events, with each beginning a unique and lengthy exile. The Wildnowitz clan slips away from their tiny Russian village ahead of a pogrom, their quest for survival leading them to Poland, Germany and South America. The aristocratic Sobelevs, uprooted by the Russian Revolution, flee to Paris, Rome and London. Eva Salt, a Polish intellectual and Zionist, leaves for London with her husband after anti-Semitism costs her a position at Warsaw University. And Stepan Kessler, a gifted violinist who, along with his family, was compelled to flee Russia at age 12 finds little comfort in Nazi Germany. World events swirl about these disparate figures, and as war, revolution and the rise of Hitler fill the background, the families mingle, intertwine and, occasionally, prosper. The author of Cesar and Augusta has created a whirlwind of events, but it's an unmanageable one, with no focus, little strength and a vast array of characters merging into a colorless mass. (Sept.)