cover image Ray Had an Idea about Love

Ray Had an Idea about Love

Eddie Lewis. Simon & Schuster, $20.5 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-671-88762-9

Santa Fe businessman Ray Griffey's befuddled attempt to find himself is the burden of this earnest first novel, but the third-person voice that aspires to an ironic detachment often inspires tedium instead. Still, the narrative is sometimes touching as it follows Ray from 1982 to 1993, after his decision to leave his wife and two young sons: moving into a dingy apartment; muddling through weekends with the kids; pursuing the love affair he began while still married. Ray's ideas about love are the least interesting aspects of the book as he bonds with his pal Dmitri, with whom he enjoys ``talking on and on about women, life, love, and suffering.'' The problem for Ray, and for the reader, is that he enjoys such talking too much. Lewis does manage to create interest in this shallow and immature man with finely drawn details of those parts of his life to which he remains committed: his floundering business; his male friends (most of whom also divorce during the course of the novel); and his sons. By the end, Ray is no longer the brash, hopeful seeker who left his family with a head full of big ideas. Sketching Ray's awkward gropings for self-knowledge, Lewis crafts a wistful portrait of a man suspended between dreams and reality. But the narrative is ultimately disappointing, unleavened by real irony born of insight. (Mar.)