Pilgrim's Return

In a beautifully wrought novel of adventure and ideas, Masters (Success, 1992) weaves the tales of two military men of two different eras to say much about ideas and ideals, effectively demonstrating that what has happened before can happen again. Aviator Roy Armstrong is a soldier of fortune, a veteran of the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War who is living in Mexico in 1939 and '40; his notebook entries comprise one strand of the novel's double helix. The second protagonist is Walt Hardy, a key player in the Iran-Contra scandal, who has returned to contemporary Pittsburgh, where he grew up as the chauffeur's son on a wealthy estate. These men are linked by the diary and a prevailing sense of disillusionment. They are men of integrity ""loaded down with ideas of truth and beauty"" who learn the ultimate truth, a truth that hurts: ""Heroes get ground up in the works. In their own good deeds,"" says Armstrong. More poignantly, heroism is a lonely state. Both men fumble their relationships with women, and there is an omnipresent sense here, beautifully suggested through subtle language and characterization, that their personal lives will not yield a lasting happiness. This remarkable novel entertains and enlightens as it explores the cost of the American quest for power, whether national or personal. Masters deepens a rousing story with a mist of truth and an aura of heartfelt melancholy. (Aug.)