YOUR CHEATIN' HEART

Amelia Wesley, a California girl come to New York as an assistant editor (""miles away from the lemon orchards, talking too slow and leaving the lys off my adverbs""), realizes that six years with video-artist Nick Pausanias might as well be a hundred--and there'd still be no ring. So she marries Jim Bob Parker, M.D., moves to Chicago with him, and lives there mostly ignored as Dr. Jim Bob suffers through a neurosurgery residency tending to spinal cord injuries. When old love Nick passes through Chicago, Amelia resists. But when months go by and Jim Bob is more and more engrossed in his daily horrors, a semi-breakdown sends Amelia back to California for a rest. Nick turns up again, and this time her cheatin' heart starts lub-dubbing to beat the band. But passion, after all these years, is more than it's bucked up to be, so back to Jim Bob and pregnancy. Amelia's narration verges from blithe to cutesy to painfully self-conscious; some of the pieces are engaging, some not, and--with no real development--they don't even begin to fit together. Still, those who identify may be willing to just go along for the glib, messy ride.