Private Lies

From Publishers Weekly Once again Adler ( War of the Roses ) focuses not on the redemptive power of love but on its capacity for destruction, in this case in the form of all-consuming sexual passion. When Ken Kramer and Carol Stein meet at a dinner arranged by their spouses, it has been 20 years since they ended their incendiary affair. Inexorably, the old erotic flame draws them together, but they are not the same people they once were. She, having failed as a professional ballerina, has married pompous Eliot Butterfield for his money; Eliot had hoped to become the next Hemingway but he's writing advertising copy instead. This is not, however, a story of lost dreams and new chances, for Ken and Carol are not the lone adulterers: antiseptic Maggie Kramer and Carol's formerly stodgy hubby have discovered orgasmic ecstasy in each other. Before the philandering foursome heads off on safari (from which only three will return) of stolen moments among famished crocodiles and stampeding elephants, this elegantly rollicking story loses some of its oomph. The black comedy lurches toward slapstick. Author tour. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Passionate lovers in their youth, Carol and Ken meet again 20 years later, when their spouses develop a business arrangement. They keep their previous relationship a secret, and soon renew their affair, devising a plan to rid themselves of both mates by enabling them to fall in love with each other. This is not the stuff that great romances are made of, and the interest spurred by the story of Ken and Carol's young lives is checked by their development as selfish, flat, middle-aged adults. Even more tedious is their constant whining about unfulfilled, youthful career aspirations, he as a Hemingway imitator, she as a ballerina. Not a credible addition to this established author's large body of work, but expect demand considering that Adler penned the popular book (then film) War of the Roses (Warner, 1981). Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90.