IT'S ONLY LOVE

The author of Special Interests (1990) returns with a sentimental, happily clichÇd, cheerful—and likable—love story. It all takes place in a Massachusetts factory town in 1968 and then, 21 years later, in the same place when the two separated lovers reunite—and old mysteries, old gossip are uncovered. Lawyer Marci, widowed mother of two teens, is coerced into visiting the recently bereaved wife of Salvatore Durone, dead of cancer. To Marci's surprise, tough, snarly, abusive Sal (whose son Frank is a sour chip off the old nasty block) had, according to his widow, been working on ``getting'' the people who'd caused his death. Marci scoffs, then settles down to serious sleuthing—while in Miami, famous novelist Rodney Bingham struggles to write again. He begins to write about the town and the time he first met Marci (Marcella Parmacella) in 1968.... Rod is sent by his cold-as-ice wealthy father to spy on the workers of the Kelso factory to sniff out a strike. He arrives as a summer worker. ``I was Snow White...only the dwarves were twice my size and hostile,'' with monikers like Slime, Turd, Pimp, Hard-on, etc. (But the after-work hang-out place was a soda fountain!) The gang boss is Sal Durone, who'll inevitably beat Rod to a pulp. And just as inevitable in this cozily predictable idyll, he'll have a soft center. During the summer, Rod is accepted by and falls in love with Marci, physically and wordily, but betrayal parts them. Two decades later there's the happiest of endings; Sal's mystery is explained, and his tough son redeemed. Familiar cast and ethnic tintypes but, still, sweet and sunny.