THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 21, 1996 TAG: 9608210389
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY
LENGTH: 83 lines
THE FIRST THING we know about Eric is that he is dead.
It is jarring against the image we gradually build of him: rogue, twenty-something model and medical student. As we read of his life, always in the background lies the shadow of his death.
And so it is that first novelist Jeannie Brewer draws readers into a world permeated with the knowledge of imminent death, even in life. ``A Crack in Forever'' is her tribute to AIDS patients, a love story in which there can be no happily-ever-after.
Brewer's background comes from her work as Associate Medical Director of the AIDS Clinic at the University of Southern California Medical Center. She lives in Los Angeles, Calif., with her husband, film and television producer Rocky Lang, and their daughter.
Though Eric Moro is only 21 when he meets Alexandra Taylor, his fate has already been sealed, years earlier, by a foolish act of youth. Alexandra is an artist and Eric is the model for her sketches of nudes to be used in a textbook. The sparks between the two are instantaneous.
``A Crack in Forever'' is written from Alexandra's viewpoint:
``It may be that there is something inherently sexy about drawing nudes, the focus on the naked body, the intimate details. But for me, drawing had never been tactile in a sexual sense. . . it was as if my pencil were running over Eric, not my paper. I could sense his body heat, smell his skin, feel him quiver in response to my light touch. Or maybe it was my body I sensed, suffused with a tingling awareness in response to his reckless sensuality.''
Their courtship is passionate, reckless and dramatic - full of unforgettable moments. Brewer is skilled at conjuring sensual images: ``It was dark and familiar in the stairway, and we stopped to lean against the wall, drawn into a kiss, our lips confirming what our hearts already knew: that love unspoken is still love.''
There is abundant foreshadowing along the way. The book becomes almost maudlin in places. At the end of many chapters and in passages in between, Brewer intrudes to interpret the present in terms of what she knows about the future, breaking the narrative flow.
For instance: ``We knew our love was invincible. We thought we were too. We were wrong.''
Running through the text is the mystery of Eric's troubling relationship with his parents. As characters they are never believable and the resolution Brewer offers seems contrived.
Inevitably, Eric tests positive for AIDS:
``He sat beside me and I watched him, realizing that something had slipped irretrievably away from us - not innocence, not hope, but confidence, youth's expectation of good luck.''
Brewer is at her best when she writes what she knows, when she takes readers into the hospital wards where AIDS patients battle diseases with terrifying names. There she lays bare all the fear and regret of a life laced with death:
``. . . it had become increasingly hard not to notice each moment, not to think of the end, or of Eric getting sick. I knew the best thing I could do for him was to enjoy the time we had, but the time we had was tainted by thoughts of the time we didn't have.''
Some of the book's greatest wisdom comes from the mouth of a lawyer who takes on Eric's cause, his case for discrimination for being denied a residency because of his illness.
``. . . forever doesn't exist for any of us. Like infinity, it's intangible, unreachable. No matter how much forever you want, loving someone forever, living forever, it inevitably cracks open before you get there, and you fall right through.''
In the end, it becomes clear that the only force powerful enough to mend the ``crack in forever'' and vanquish death is love.
Despite its flaws, Brewer's writing is powerful, the pain is palpable and the sadness overwhelming. MEMO: June Arney is a staff writer. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ANN MURDY
Jeannie Brewer's first novel is overwhelmingly painful.
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BOOK REVIEW
``A Crack in Forever''
Author: Jeannie Brewer
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 299 pp.
Price: $22. by CNB