A Time to Love

Kingston's workmanlike first novel is an English version of Abie's Irish Rose. Ellie Murphy, child of a drunken father and toil-worn mother, grows up to become beautiful Miss Ellen White of London's most fashionable emporium. David Cheifitz, only scion of an almost equally poor family of orthodox Jews, whose artistic talents earn him a job as an illustrator, falls in love at age 16 with a painting of the Lady of Shalott. At an exhibit of his own paintings, he glimpses his Beatrice in the even lovelier flesh, pursues her and, despite her reputation``Miss Ice White''makes her his own. Because they are underage, they cannot marry without his father's consent, grimly withheld because Ellie is a gentile. And even when his father yields, David's mother remains adamant, refusing to visit Ellie or the children she produces. Difficulties over their different religions notwithstanding, they prosper until David, piqued by a domestic battle, enlists in the army in WW I. Slow moving until this point, the narrative now takes off, with Ellen's gift of second sight providing an unexpected denouement. This, however, does not compensate for the daunting mixture of cockney and Yiddish dialogue, and the stock characters of cross-culture romance. (October)