The Half-Life of Happiness

Casey's much-admired Spartina won the National Book Award in 1989, and it's no pleasure to report that his new book is a rambling affair that gives only occasional glimpses of the shining talent on show there. It is the story of Mike Reardon, a young lawyer whom after a fling as a Washington congressional aide, has settled into a country practice in Charlottesville, Va. He has a feistily erratic wife, Joss, two bright little daughters, Edith and Nora, an adored mother-in-law and a circle of friends who seem like part of the family. Gradually, things in this seemingly Edenic existence begin to fall apart. A buddy kills himself, Joss's drinking becomes a problem, she begins a lesbian affair and Mike is talked into running an apparently hopeless campaign for Congress. Meanwhile, Edith and Nora reflect alternately on the course of events as they struggle to keep afloat in a turmoil of conflicting loyalties. The problem with the novel is that the reader never gets to know these people as well as Casey evidently does, which means that many of this long book's long scenes drift; there are numerous passages that could have used a stern editorial pencil. There are pleasures, to be sure: some of the scenes in the campaign are sharp and funny (if by no means as plugged-in as Primary Colors), and the concluding pages have a sweet dying fall. But the facts that Mike, for all his virtues, never quite comes to lif,e and that the girls sound too much alike, are distinct flaws in a book that depends on their conviction and weight. 50,000 first printing. (Mar.)