Between Two Worlds

The adventures of three young Russian Jews--beautiful Zica and the men who love her, Yakov, a poor musician, and blond medical student Kyril, son of a vicious Cossack--form the heart of this well-researched romantic novel by the author of The Keeper of the Walls. From 1905 until the Bolshevik Revolution, Baroness Zica enjoys the status of her rich merchant family. Pregnant by Kyril, whom she fears has deserted her, Zica aborts the child. When Red Terrorists slay her parents, Zica flees with Yakov, and eventually they make their way to America, brushing briefly with Kyril on Ellis Island. The latter's good looks and faked ID as a Russian count soon earn him the role of playboy. Zica and Yakov parlay a Lower East Side pawnshop into an art gallery. Soon the three arrive in the sordid coked-up Hollywood of the 1920s, where Kyril becomes a matinee idol while Yakov is the comic ``Poker Jack.'' Zica zigzags between the two men before finding true love. The characters are celluloid-thin, but the piled-on catastrophes of history and wild turns of plot that carry all three from the czars to the stars keep the airy narrative aloft. (Sept.)