The Lake Dreams the Sky: A Love Story

Held together by the slightest of plots and some heavy-duty preaching, this second novel by Wolfe (after The Woman Who Lives in the Earth) succeeds on the strength of his seductive prose and compassionate voice. Wolfe begins with the Montana homecoming of a career woman after a 23-year absence. Back at her grandmother's house on the lake where she grew up, in a community where white people and Indians don't get along, middle-aged Boston real estate demographer Liz rediscovers a painting familiar from her childhood and opens a window on a romance from 50 years earlier. In the years following WWII, Rose, a half-breed waitress, became involved with a white itinerant saw filer and artist named Cody, infuriating the town with a love that, legend has it, ""set the lake on fire."" Most of the novel deals with the tribulations of Rose and Cody as they face the narrow-minded rancor of people who are offended by their passion. Though some self-righteous moralizing weighs down the tale, Wolfe maintains narrative momentum and a rising sense of menace as the lovers discover that an unwritten moral code has turned them into pariahs, and the community into a vengeful force. As asides, Wolfe provides some interesting tidbits--that Indians owned slaves, for instance, and invented lemon meringue. But it's the strong sense of place and appealing central characters that move this story of doomed love to its transcendent denouement. (June)