Sweet Caress

Throughout his career, and especially in his masterly Every Human Heart, Boyd has excelled in depicting the life of a talented artist who suffers more failures than triumphs yet generates significant art. Here he has invented a spunky heroine named Amory Clay, born in Britain in 1908, educated at a boarding school, and determined to become a professional photographer. Amory is restless, rash, impulsive—and way ahead of her time. Her job as a society photographer ends in scandal, as does her next adventure in decadent prewar Berlin, where she infiltrates secret sex clubs and snaps the debauched antics there. Another scandal ensues when her photos are confiscated as pornographic and she is arrested for obscenity. (In a nice touch, Boyd scatters 70 snapshots throughout the novel as examples of Amory’s work.) A dashing lover brings her to the U.S. for magazine assignments; another lover appears, and she begins a second relationship. WWII is the crucible in which Amory finds her true calling as a war photographer. In Germany she meets army officer Sholto Farr, a Scottish aristocrat, whom she later marries, but soon she is unmoored once more. In addition to the psychologically rich characterization, a wealth of atmospheric details—what the characters wear, the brands of cigarettes they smoke, and the whisky they knock back—add depth, immediacy, and authenticity to an engrossing, moving story of Amory’s turns of fortune. (Sept.)