A Golden Circle

Lawrence, coauthor of the plays Inherit the Wind and Auntie Mame , celebrates Broadway, Hollywood musicals and New York's literary aristocracy of the 1920s and '30s in his nostalgic, reverent first novel. Mixing delightful anecdotes with cliches and hollow dialogue, the story begins in the 1990s when Jed Jefferson, an entertainment reporter for a sleazy San Francisco tabloid, falls in love with torch singer Kati Singer, a convent-raised orphan. Jed and Kati head for New York to meet legendary theatrical star Madame Rachel, whose memories bring Algonquin Round Table wits and producer David Belasco into the narrative. Rachel may or may not have had a baby in Europe during the 1930s, and when Jed accepts a commission to write an ``as told to'' autobiography of Hollywood musical star Julia Kole, he learns that (surprise, surprise) she was born in the tiny central European town where Rachel supposedly had a miscarriage. And, by the way, a generation later, Julia abandoned an illegitimate daughter for career reasons. Even the not-too-swift Jed can trace his beloved Kati's family tree by this point, but most readers will have long since grown tired of the author's excessive reliance on coincidence. ( June )