Pumpkin Moon

Sailing, grief and writer's block are among the weighty topics tackled by Conrad, author of the children's books Prairie Songs and Stonewords . Several years after her teenaged daughter's death, divorced writer Ellie Brinkley lives alone in her Long Island home, struggling to begin her second novel. Chimney sweep Max Turkel (``dressed in a black top hat and tails, and underneath, a Sting T-shirt'') bursts in on Ellie's solitude, unblocks her chimney, takes her sailing in his boat (the Nemaste : ``it's Sanskrit for `the God within me beholds the God within you' '') and soon becomes her lover. Ellie's return to sailing and her steamy relationship with the tantalizing chimney sweep play equal parts in loosing a torrent of recollections about her father, her ex-husband and her daughter. Before Ellie can get on with her novel and her life, she must confront the fairly predictable truths that lie behind these memories. Though the writing is often astute and moving, Ellie's first-person musings never quite achieve the momentum needed to sweep the reader away. (May)