The Cornerstone

Platt's fifth novel (after Honor Bright), a WWII coming-of-age story, is a realistic though predictable tale of a newly retired naval officer who revisits the summer camp he was forced to attend as a rebellious teenager in 1944. The novel begins in 1992, when Rear Admiral Ian McKenzie accepts an invitation to speak at the dedication of a lodge named in his honor at Camp Roswell, a Methodist-run camp on the shores of Puget Sound. As memories rush over him, the admiral is soon 15 again, delivered against his will to Roswell as one of the Service Organization Kids, city charity cases who have been given free places in the hope that fresh air and exercise will rehabilitate them. The misfits are put in a cabin called Deerslayer, under the leadership of Andrew Jackson Ackerman, a young tough-love war veteran recovering from a head injury who inspires his charges to build a fireplace and chimney for the lodge. Later, Ian discovers that the counselor is dying and the poignancy of this secret binds them While the narrative moves swiftly and catches some of the energy of Ian's angry teenage adrenaline, it's robbed of its most telling moments by an excess of modern expletives and relentlessly snappy dialogue. Platt does, however, create a moving relationship between Ian and Ackerman that survives the ravages of 48 years, and provides an inspirational ending (Nov.) FYI: Platt has already written the film version of this book, to be produced by actor-director Tom Skerritt, of TV's Picket Fences.