THE SUNSET DREAM

by Catherine Gavin ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 1984

With the same industrious research that gave her WW II anti-De Gaulle sagas a stern verisimilitude, Gavin firmly outlines the sweeping political and cultural changes in California from 1841 to 1939--as seen through an inheritance of tragedy (and a wild grand-opera plot) in four generations of women. The story begins with doomed lovers: Rosalie Estrada, sister of Don Luis and Don Felipe, from a noble Spanish family settled in the Sonoma Valley--in love with Prince Peter Gagarin, visiting Fort Ross (Russian-settled in 1799). But Peter will die in an accident; grieving Rosalie, married to Don Carlos Rivera, will bear Peter's twins--and the boy twin is secretly given away as an infant; so Rosalie kills Carlos and herself, while the girl twin is spirited away by a nurse. Meanwhile, a larger disruption is about to take place in the horrified Estrada family as US forces, organized by bellicose, slippery Fremont (very different from the dull Fremont of Dream West), begin to move in. Luis, now married to Isabel, will fight for Spanish land and honor; Content, daughter of a New England whaler and now wife of Felipe, will shoot one of Fremont's marauding Bear Flaggers to save Isabel; and the Estradas lose most of their land. Still, Felipe (now ""Philip"") will be on his way to wealth via partnership with Robert Cord (to be elected Governor one day)--while Luis, proud and refusing to be Americanized, sticks to the land. But what about those twins, you ask? Well, the girl is brought up as ""Laura Winters"" by foster parents, not knowing she's Rosalie's daughter. And actress Laura will become the mistress of none other than Robert Cord, later dallying with the Emperor of France--but she misses being officially recognized by Philip (thanks to Content), reuniting with her twin brother only just before he's hanged as a bandit. Then, in the next generation, Luis' daughter, middle-aged Marie, will marry nice Rico; Philip's granddaughter Violet, a silent-film actress, visits them at the old ranch. But her career will end with a murder trial and a ""second best"" marriage to crippled Tim, a brilliant cameraman who is nearly killed by a radical bomb. And finally there's a spate of dire poverty for Tim and Violet in San Francisco, where Content dies in the Fire; Cord is assassinated; other tragedies ensue; but Tim and Violet's daughter Heidi, knowing little of Estrada sunsets, will look forward to a sunrise. With exhaustively researched social backgrounds and densely educational incident: a solid, even stolid, dynasty sweep through history--despite the Trovatore contrivances.

Pub Date: July 26, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION