The Quondam Wives

Gracefully written but transparently formulaic, this contemporary retelling of King Lear suffers for coming so closely on the heels of Jane Smiley's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Thousand Acres. The Lear character in this case is Anthony Quondam, an octogenarian who divorced the mother of his two daughters, Gwen and Reggie, then remarried and fathered a third, Delia. At the suggestion of his naive second wife, Quondam decides to bestow his ancestral home, a stately but dilapidated Yorkshire manse, upon his progeny. Delia, an artist, draws Quondam's wrath when she respectfully refuses her share of the estate. But Gwen and Reggie seize Quondam Hall as a chance to vent old grievances against their parents--and to make money by turning it into a tourist attraction. Although MacInnes ( Admit One ) reveals her calculating characters' wicked intentions with notable agility, she sometimes allows the familiarity of the Lear story to substitute for thorough characterization. Even as Quondam undergoes the pain of betrayal, he remains an archetypal figure. Most memorable here are MacInnes's fine evocation of the English countryside and her creation of Quondam's first wife, who unwittingly set the tragedy in motion years before. (Mar.)