Reviews

Astronomer Edwin Hubble and his wife, Grace, a stylish couple who frequented intellectual Los Angeles circles during the first half of this century, make excellent subjects for a historical novel, especially because Grace left behind numerous diaries documenting their life together. Bezzi's first novel promises much, combining rich material with an innovative premise, but it flounders in execution. The narrative consists of journal entries written by the Hubbles' fictional granddaughter, Jane, who interweaves excerpts from Grace's diarieswhich she is readinginto her own. Janepainfully introspective when contemplating her own narrow existence as a lowly copy editor at an inconsequential astronomy magazineturns blindly adulatory when examining her grandparents, reverentially recounting details such as Edwin's preferred tobacco. Hubble's significant contributions to his field and the roster of his illustrious friends (among them Aldous Huxley and Charlie Chaplin), however, receive inadequate attention. Jane draws fruitless emotional parallels between herself and Grace, harping ineffectually on the low self-esteem that plagues them both. She also apologizes constantly for her inferior writng abilities, and rightly so, it seems. Bezzi's prose is sloppy and pretentious, bogging down frequently in awkward repetition and badly chosen phrases in assorted European languages. (October 12)