GLASS PEOPLE

A seductively accessorized short novel about beautiful people who live both too perfectly and quite imperfectly — Cameron Bolt, DA en route to the California Attorney Generalship, and his flawlessly lovely Francesca who is increasingly anomic. After all, she has nothing to do — Cameron, whom you suspect is sexually inefficient in his black silk robe, prepares all the little gourmet meals. Finally Francesca goes to visit her mother Kate who was always more like a sister to her but who now is into a wholly new thing — an awesomely organic life with a third husband and pregnancy. Francesca goes to New York; tries and fails to get a job; has a short-lived affair; works for a time as an amanuensis to a wholly freaked out woman who has shaved her head and is searching for the "totally unencumbered" life; and finally Cameron, still in his unimpassioned, custodial fashion, takes her home to have the baby which is not his. . . . By no means as substantial a book as The Perfectionists (1970) but to be enjoyed for the very attractive distraction that it is.