cover image Silvermore

Silvermore

Patricia Strothers. Onyx Books, $4.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-451-40168-7

Strother ( The Constant Star ) mars this 19th-century family saga with her frivolous, even insidious treatment of incest. Ede Sothern and Eben Silvermore are young and in love, but forbidden to marry because of Eben's scandalous previous association with a prostitute. After Ede weds a more acceptable suitor, Eben, spurred by uncontrollable lusts, feels obliged to marry a woman whom he has compromised, but trains his passions on Cara, possibly his illegitimate daughter and whom he has raised. In the wake of a sexual episode, Eben is consumed by guilt--a small concession here to good taste--and Cara is banished. Eben is reunited with Ede, but Cara becomes an unsympathetic evil-doer who uses a string of lovers to further her own goals, which consist of a return to her relationship with ``Papa.'' The offensive portrait of seductive, lascivious Cara overshadows dynamic characterizations elsewhere. (Dec.)