The Touch

The basic formula of Myerson's second novel (after Sleepwalking ) is a familiar one: a mysterious man crashes headfirst into the lives of a London family, disrupting their daily existence and leaving much chaos in his wake. Donna, the younger of the two sisters who are at the center of the book, is afflicted with a mysterious back ailment that controls the rhythm not only of her own life but also, to a large degree, the lives of her lover, Will, and her older sister, Gayle. Frank is the bizarre, evangelical bum who disrupts their rhythms with the promise to heal Donna of her excruciating and disfiguring pain through the laying on of hands. The story fluctuates between the present lives of all the characters and Frank's dismal past. Whether Frank is simply a dangerous freak or a confused man truly touched by God is the question that hovers over the story. Unfortunately, this question becomes tedious after 200 pages and, unlike Donna's condition, the outcome of Frank's arrival, though it's certainly supposed to shock, is all too obvious. But Myerson's prose is the muscle holding up the spine of the plot. The writing is clear and neat throughout, and even when the plot weakens, her words flow along in a quiet and compelling manner. (June)