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THE DARK JOURNEY by Diana Raymond

THE DARK JOURNEY

By

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 1979
Publisher: Scribners

The tale of an English widow, with a soothing message--about healing acute grief within the huddled warmth of other veterans of stress--finally emerging through some rather glossy matter. Eve's husband Jamie, internationally famous mountain climber, had been killed in a freak climbing accident, leaving his 16year-old son Nigel, his elderly clergyman father, and wife Eve, for whom Jamie's love had been ""woven into the fabric of her existence."" Numb with grief, Eve is also plagued with fears for Nigel's safety, particularly when he is slated to go with a school group on a mountain climbing expedition in Andorra: she attempts to hide her terrors from Nigel, but her anxiety beams through. And Eve's worst fears soon seem to be realized when Nigel takes off on the trek. Nerves jangling because of his best friend's taunts and his mother's obvious anxiety, Nigel wanders afar and ii lost on the heights. Now Eve is in real panic, reliving horror, and she is taken to the site for three hellish nights. But also there she finds four strangers who offer--spontaneously--warmth, love, and concern; all have been acquainted in some form with grief. Eve, gathering strength, learns that ""the untroubled places, the playgrounds, are not the essential truth."" Nigel is at last saved, and a renewed Eve moves closer to both son and father-in-law with a sense of peace and hope. Smooth, comforting, if a bit pat.