Cliff House

On a trip to San Francisco motivated by a need to get away from her publisher and her fiance and by an assignment to write an article on walking tours, journalist Mara Brightfield is immediately swept into architect Guy Levin's obsession with the reconstruction of the legendary Cliff House. Perlberg's romance novel is less concerned with this clash between two opposites who attract than it is with the conflict between idealism and the spirit of compromise. An impractical dreamer, Guy seeks to keep his renovation project pure, but destructive forces seem to confirm the curse on the ill-fated mansion high above the sea. Mara, on the other hand, is the sort of person who cannot seem to finish anything she starts--but doesn't hesitate to rearrange a friend's living room or to step in behind the scenes to interfere with Guy's work. The writing here is smooth and cogent, but Guy would have made a far more interesting and estimable protagonist than the feckless, dependent Mara, who earns the criticism of those who know her best--and whose cynicism taints Perlberg's effort. (Aug.)