Rules of Seduction CL

This is a very assured first novel, set in a carefully rendered setting of wealth and privilege, that somehow fails to achieve the emotional impact its author clearly meant it to have. John Newland is a young man of startling good looks and many romantic conquests (of both sexes) whose life is shaped by an odd passivity. Orphaned in his teens by an accident for which he blames himself, he initiates nothing, but offers himself up for the physical and emotional pleasure of other people. His engagement to Kate, a wealthy socialite much like himself, is equally halfhearted. Then one night someone he hardly knows comes into his life and begins to change it: Timothy spirits Newland away to his country house, introduces him to his sister Ellen, and Newland's sad certainties begin to crumble. The hero's eventual choice between the two women, made with a melodramatic flourish after much would-be suspenseful buildup, is no surprise, and brings to an end a curiously bloodless experience. Rules can be entertaining, pleasantly romantic and sometimes, as in Newland's relationship with gay Ripley, quite touching; but the hero's attractions and his plight are never sufficiently convincing to bear the weight of the major novel the author seems to have had in mind. Author tour. (Sept.)