Life Savings

Following a group of lesbians in their 40s who join together to purchase, renovate and then quickly sell a house in San Francisco, this novel raises important questions about money, power and social responsibility. Mostly, however, it entertains. Each character is carefully drawn, with her own quirks, flaws and personal history, and the group dynamics become intensified when the principals must hire a group of four younger women in order to finish the house in a hurry. The narrative closely tracks Marcia, one of the principals, as she struggles to reconcile social responsibility with gentrification, and also to rebuild her personal life by embarking on a new relationship. Marcia's sexual proclivities run to masochism, and her first erotic reveries here center on being slapped the night before by her lover. She also is a recovering alcoholic, an ex-smoker and the next-door neighbor of a teenage boy in need of a great deal of guidance. Marcia deals realistically and thoughtfully with each of the conflicts pulling at her in this endearing story. Due wrote High & Outside. (Oct.)