FICTION

GATHERINGS by Marina Rust (Simon & Schuster: $18; 264 pp . ). More ways that the rich are different from you and me: Instead of eating chicken like the rest of us, they consume all manner and size of game birds, exquisitely arrayed on serving platters and brought in by the help. Most of them--if not Meredith, the central character--know not to drop into the kitchen for an unscheduled, unassisted bite; it makes the help feel they’ve been intruded upon. This novel flows like water, rolling, turning back on itself, gently changing direction and then returning to its original path; the author paints scenes in pale gradations of hue. Glancing references to a relative’s problem, a family secret, gain momentum and strength as the story moves on. There is a sense of great pain beneath the beautiful surface--Meredith faces nagging questions about why her mother left her, and why a favorite uncle died--and privilege, finally, is no protection for her and her two cousins, Pearce and Felicity. At times the reader grows impatient with the stately pace, but Rust’s graceful writing has a hypnotic force.