Shadow Mountain

Segal ( Susquehanna ) here creates two female characters who lend style and support to an otherwise insubstantial romance. Charlee Fields is a tall, spirited 16-year-old enjoying a warm relationship with her cousin Lauren Jacobson, who, at 17, is quiet, petite and bookish. Wealthy and cosseted Jewish girls growing up in 1930s North Carolina, they feel compelled to uphold family traditions and to adhere rigidly to the moral code of the times. They are genuinely devoted to each other, with just one concern clouding Lauren's mind: Charlee wants a beau only if he's interested in Lauren. After a sumptuous society debut and a year spent traveling among a network of Southern cousins for more parties, the young women part. Charlee, after attending an exclusive finishing school in New York, eventually marries the enormously wealthy Bruce Fields. Lauren studies for an advanced degree at Chapel Hill and marries penniless young doctor David Bernard. Key events in this melodrama rely heavily on a number of sexual dysfunctions: because of the impotence, frigidity or sexual ambivalence of sundry characters, Charlee ultimately has an affair with David, with far-reaching and irrevocable consequences. Lauren and Charlee--and their disparate, well-rendered milieus--provide a needed spark to a faltering story. (June)