Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
The sun is hot, the sand is white and the bodies are tanned, but this tale of sexual obsession never gets the mercury to budge. Travel writer Kate consummates her liaison with sullen archeologist Nick after he says to her, halfway through their first meal, "Let's find a bed, shall we?" At his remote island retreat in the southern Aegean, various overeducated friends drop by for meals worthy of Julia Child and conversations that sound like Ph.D. dissertations. It's implied that the characters have great sex, but only once do we actually read about any. When Kate flings open a door one evening and finds Nick with a lithe young thing, she leaves him to marry safe boyfriend Henry, but she can't stay away from Nick for long, and eventually her addiction leads to violence. We're supposed to plumb the depths of Kate's soul and understand why she needs Nick. But depths are hard to find as first-time novelist Burnham casts us adrift in a sea of two-dimensional characters and flat, predictably "exotic" details. Next time, more passionand hold the moussaka. (Oct.)Kirkus Reviews
An overwritten, overwrought, and underpowered first novel about a woman who loves the wrong man too much.When archaeologist Nick catches Kate's eye "like cotton on barbed wire" in Athens, she's immediately hooked. And though the story of her love for this man who has "the face of a god" alternates with rather pointless memories of her childhood and the loss she felt when her father died, it remains the main attraction. With plenty of allusions to Greek mythology for intellectual heft (especially references to Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus after he rescued her from the Minotaur), and with food and sex lavishly described for those who need something less cerebral, Kate—with ample foreshadowing that she's headed for trouble—goes on to relate the consequences of this first meeting. An underemployed travel writer, she beds Nick on their first date, then accompanies him to his archaeological dig on the beautiful island where he lives in a gorgeous villa. Their lovemaking is terrific, but Nick doesn't communicate, and their early joyous intimacy is followed by his retreat into work. Kate, though, doesn't give up: She cooks for and entertains his colleagues and her friends—among them a worldly nun, a neurotic chef, and an artist with a trust fund. When she finds Nick making love to Chris, a colleague's young daughter, however, she flies back to California and marries faithful Henry, who has a stutter—and a gun. But Kate still can't forget Nick, gets together with him again, aborts his child, and follows him to New York. There, fate levels an unexpected punishment on her, one she welcomes as she lies in "harsh Hellenic radiance."
A low-budget Fatal Attraction story that tries too hard to be a blockbuster.