Changes and Chances

Cassandra Taylor Steele, the heroine of Elmblad's All Manner of Riches, has settled into domestic bliss with her family on their farm in Eastern Oklahoma, content to encourage her husband's Congressional career in the Kennedy administration. When Dixon Steele is cut down by the violence of desegregation, Cassie is appointed to finish his term, winning a subsequent second term on her own. The Kennedy and Johnson eras were indeed a dynamic period for national politics, yet Elmblad seems to suggest that blonde Cassie is the only woman in Congress (there are actually 17). But Cassie never meets with any of them to discuss politics, seek a mentor, or even have lunch. The children of this fully empowered but dim-witted dame benefit from private schools, a live-in mother's helper, and doting grandparents, leaving Cassie luxuriously free to ponder whether she should select sophisticated Bostonian Eliot Peabody or oilman Mack Cameron to fill her late husband's shoes. The political climate of the '60s serves mostly as a superficial backdrop in the author's treatment; readers can rest assured that when a secret from Cassie's past unravels her career, a good man is waiting with open arms. 25,000 first printing; major ad/promo. (June)