cover image Love Is War

Love Is War

George Stade, . . Turtle Point, $16.95 (300pp) ISBN 978-1-885586-47-6

Stade's love of language and literary convention are apparent from the first sentence of his new novel (after Sex and Violence ) when, in the manner of a Victorian narrator, he welcomes the reader with, "We might as well begin with Charles Craig Lockhart's walk to work." Charles (roundly known as Chuck), an English professor at Columbia University—as is Stade—tosses off allusions, lit crit and bits of verse as casually as a contemporary action hero mouths an expletive. The book's most entertaining strain is the frisson between this elegant language and the characters' crass thoughts and behaviors. Such authorial devotion is not, however, extended to the plot, which, if not hackneyed, is at least familiar. Middle-aged Charlie tumbles into an affair with 30-year-old student poetess Claire McCoy, she of the curly red hair and extreme self-confidence. It soon becomes apparent to the pair that the only things standing in the way of their eternal happiness are their spouses, whom the lovers resolve to murder. Stocked with missed chances, recriminations and snafus, Stade's flights of literary fancy are exhilarating, but his characters are pawns. (Sept.)