Light at Dusk. - Review - book review

Light at Dusk * Peter Gadol * Picador USA * $24

Paris has never appeared more unattractive than in Peter Gadol's latest novel, Light at Dusk, All sorts of strikes and demonstrations are Doing on, racist graffiti cover the beautiful buildings, the residents are fleeing, and everyone is tossing their stale bread into the Seine, so the river is covered with a scum of waterlogged baguettes, brioches, croissants, and pain au chocolat.

Fortunately, Light at Dusk recovers quickly from this messy beginning and turns itself into a stylish piece of entertainment. It's not quite a thriller, not quite a story of sensitive Americans abroad, but a little of both--think John Grisham meets The English Patient. And at least it has the courage to take us on a real adventure, which is something novels as well-written as this rarely do.

Our hero is one Will Law, a man who must redeem himself, While a U.S. Foreign Service officer in Mexico, he did something awful, and he has been drifting ever since. Now in Paris, he decides to run off with a former lover--Pedro from New Jersey--but before he can, the child of an American woman he just met (at least, he thinks it's her child) is kidnapped right before his eyes by a gang of ultranationalistic teens, Under the circumstances he feels the least he can do is to try to get the kid back,

Will and his coterie are "embassy brats"; Americans who grew up moving from one country to another while their fathers served in the diplomatic corps, As someone who was raised under similar circumstances, I found this the most exciting part--a book about us! And Gadol's insights are right on target--we spend the rest of our lives looking for a home, which we can never quite find. Nobody understands us--but we can make dinner reservations in seven languages.

Light at Dusk never turns into the heart-pounding thriller it could have been, but Gadol's writing is so smooth and elegant that you soon lower your expectations and enjoy the hellish ride, And by the end, when you find yourself in the hills of Lebanon and everything is bright and sunny, you've forgotten all about that soggy bread--almost.

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