IN SEARCH OF BEAUTY AND LOVE ...

IN SEARCH OF BEAUTY AND LOVE by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Touchstone: $10.). Reading this curious novel by the author of the Oscar-winning screenplay for “A Room With a View” is like sitting at the feet of a village storyteller who knows exactly when to pause and when to elaborate to hold the audience’s attention. A sophisticated comedy of manners, “Search” involves three dissatisfied generations of a single, wealthy family: Louise, an emigree married to a gently adoring husband seeks to reclaim the boldness of her youth; her brittle, socialite daughter Marietta divides her time between lofty concepts and exotic lovers; Marietta’s son Mark is obsessed with money, real estate and vacuously beautiful young men. The nexus that binds these disparate lives is Leo, a guru/adventurer whose philosophy blends aesthetics and psychology with old-fashioned lust. No matter how absurd his statements and demands become, his curiously magnetic personality keeps his followers bound to him, like minor comets trapped by the gravity field of a gigantic star. Ultimately, Louise, Marietta and Mark seem to be searching for the same things in different guises, and Jhabvala’s witty prose suggests the search can be more interesting than the goal.