SHENANDOAH SUMMER

Second-novelist Jaffe (Thief of Words, 2003) offers a rather ordinary romance about an affair between a New York artist and a married woman who was once an actress.

Tug, who teaches at Pratt and makes urban collages, is in a lull in his career and love life when the show of Leonardo drawings at the Metropolitan Museum spurs him to apply for an arts fellowship to refresh his skills and find new sources of inspiration. Within days at Limespring, an artists’ colony in Virginia, his new focus becomes a couple of horses in the nearby fields, and, conveniently, the attractive blond who owns them. Alyssa is a drama teacher at a private school in Washington, DC, who spends summers at Finally Farm. She is usually on her own, since her boring husband Darryl hates the farm and the Limespring colonists and prefers staying in Washington. Their daughter Roz is in Chicago. Each year, Alyssa volunteers to produce Limespring’s summer “Follies,” and the theme this time is “Arabian Nights.” Even before rehearsals begin, Tug is spending every morning at Finally Farm learning about horses from Alyssa. By the summer solstice, when the Follies are performed, the two are so obviously smitten that Alyssa’s husband suspects an affair, though they haven’t even kissed. Darryl delivers an ultimatum to Alyssa: No Tug or no farm. After much push-pull, Tug and Alyssa finally begin a passionate affair, presented with sensual detail against a summertime arts-colony backdrop. After Tug is called back to New York to set up a show, Alyssa has a riding accident and is hospitalized with a shredded liver, husband and daughter at her side. Tug returns, setting off further fireworks, and at last he learns from Darryl the secret tragedy that makes Alyssa hold on to the farm above all else.

Nothing special except for the Blue Ridge mountain setting, rendered with appealing sensuous detail.