FICTION

VERONICA by Nicholas Christopher (Dial Press: $22.95; 319 pp.). Time travel and Tibetan mysticism are the major elements of poet Nicholas Christopher’s second novel, “Veronica.” When the narrator, Leo, meets a mysterious, beautiful woman on a Manhattan street corner, he has no idea she is the daughter of a powerful magician who has been trapped (literally) in the past by a rival named Starwood. Their meeting is no accident. For reasons too complicated to explain, Leo is the only person who can travel through time, contact Veronica’s father and bring back messages from him concerning when and where he will attempt to return to the present. Meanwhile, the villainous Starwood is busy hatching nefarious schemes to keep Veronica’s father spinning helplessly through time.

Christopher is wonderful at contrasting Leo’s growing bewilderment with the lush, dangerously sensual nature of Veronica’s world. Yet that is where there are problems. Although it is clear that Christopher is working from some sort of literary blueprint, he never sets up any guidelines for us. At the risk of sounding shallow, it is difficult to take a character’s peril seriously if he or she always manages to circumvent the rules of time and space in a way we didn’t previously know was possible. Additionally, Leo falls in love with Veronica for no discernible reason other than they are the two main characters. In spite of being well-written, “Veronica” might have benefited from more attention to a few old-fashioned concerns.