The Stone Baby

Julia is a beautiful, independently wealthy would-be painter, married with three children, who becomes sexually obsessed with an elusive neighbor. Her affair with him has extreme consequences, and through them all, three intimate women friends sustain her. What saves this tale from being a genre romance are Chester's ( In the Zone ) lyrical prose and insightful observations of emotions. A distinctive highlight is the wry acknowledgment of the enduring friendships that bind the women, all in their late 30s; and of how such issues as pregnancy and infertility, abortion and adoption demand resolution by each woman, with every option posing its own sets of limitations and inevitabilities. (Dec.)