THE WEST WIND

A light indiscretion- taken too seriously- threatens to destroy the marriage of Davy and Meg Jones, when an unpremeditated and unprecedented infidelity (a night spent in a motel with an unknown woman) leaves Davy with a guilty conscience he finds increasingly impossible to live with. A minister advises that Meg's love should be strong enough to forgive this casual episode, but her initial reaction is one of horrified recoil- and later of complete withdrawal from his life. A temporary reconciliation brings no real rapprochement between them- Meg is edgy, exasperating, suspicious, and finally listless in her ""life of shadows""; only as their separation threatens to become irrevocable can they salvage the marriage they have both compromised... A pleasant Eastern seaboard setting, a mellow message of understanding and a well-remembered name assure a certain audience but life probably begins at 40 for this readership.