I'll Be There

This engaging sequel begins where Beaches left off, several weeks after actress Cee Cee Bloom's best friend Roberta has died and left her young daughter, Nina, in Cee Cee's enthusiastic and loving (though uneven) care. For the next seven years, the two create a marriage of opposites. Cee Cee adopts mothering with her usual gaudy vitality as Nina tries to overcome her revulsion for Cee Cee's disorderly lifestyle, which includes workaholic compulsions, affairs with unsuitable men and career ups and downs. Along the way, each learns about life from the other. Throughout the narrative ominous foreshadowing creates such a heavy-handed buildup that the denouement--successful tearjerker that it is--comes as something of a let-down. Dart has an excellent ear for Cee Cee's voice, though Nina's is less effective; she is made to utter some lines that even a precocious eight-year-old couldn't muster. But despite a concept that at times seems forced, the novel is essentially generous and vividly readable. $75,000 ad/promo. (May)