Paint the Wind

A plot teeming with outsize characters and melodramatic incident propels this gaudy Western extravaganza that sweeps from a Louisiana plantation during the Civil War to a wide-open Colorado mining town. Lovely, headstrong Fancy Deverell is saved from marauding Yankees by Atticus, a wise old slave whose offensive shuffling is a hint of stereotypes to come--a hissing Chinaman, a whore with a heart of gold, a laconic gunslinger. Young Fancy is next befriended by a mystic and an irritating Shakespeare-quoting dwarf from a traveling circus. Then Atticus dies out West and Fancy is found half-frozen by Hart and Chance McAllister, brothers searching for a legendary silver lode. Fancy strikes it rich as an actress and as mistress of powerful Jason Madigan; gambling Chance, whom she loves, and Hart, who loves her, cash in, too. Spellman ( An Excess of Love ) uneasily blends New Age mysticism with the roaring Wild West of saloons, whorehouses and noble Indians in a vibrantly colored yarn that is good entertainment, if inaccurate. Doubleday Book Club main selection; Literary Guild alternate. (Feb.)