I 14 -- The Michigan Daily -- Monday, July 6, 1998 Leavitt's 'Page Turner' is ironically titled By David Erik Ntislo Daily ArsWriter Chalk it up to bourgeois provincialism, but the first thing that must be said of Leavitt's latest novel, "The Page Turner," is that it is primarily a gay love story. But, of course, nothing that simple would still be praiseworthy Leavitt's main strength is that he has written a novel that is not content to just be a "shocking" The Page gay love story. "The Page Turner Turner" is not a coming-out story, but a coming-of-age story. David Leavitt It is not so much about orienta- Houghton-Mifflin tion as aspiration and growth. The main narrative threads of "The Page Turner" array them- selves around 18-year-old aspir- ing pianist Paul Porterfield. The term "page turner" refers to one who manages the sheet music for a musician at a performance. Paul gets the rare opportunity of tuming pages for his idol, the discontent concert pianist Richard Kennington. Predictably, Kennington is immediately taken with youthful, earnest Paul, but they do not pursue their - mutual attraction until a fortuitous reunion in Italy some months later. The central concentration of "The Page Turner" is Paul's metamorphosis from a servile, dreamy-eyed boy to a confident, self-aware man. But "The Page Turner" isn't simply about Paul. It is also about the crumbling marriage of Paul's mother, about parents struggling for acceptance, about Kennington's promiscuity and his lover Joseph's kind reaction. The wide array of well-crafted, believable charac- ters, each with their own problems, needs and desires, populates the novel and is its strength. Unfortunately, it is also this breadth of focus that renders "The Page Turner" a mediocre novel. With all its characters and angles, the story's force becomes too dispersed. You set the book down, finally, feeling less like you have been dealt a thunderous, cathartic blow and more like you have been standing ina light, emotional mist. Leavitt was successful in creating sex scenes, gen- erally a dangerous business in any novel, regardless of the genders of the characters. All too frequently authors fall into one of two broad categories: those who keep their descriptions cryptically, bewilderingly veiled and those who write almost medically detailed romps that would make Hugh Hefner blush. Leavitt expertly walks the middle line, crafting deliciously translucent, amorous encounters. Leavitt's writing shows the influence of E.M. Forster and Oscar Wilde (unfortunately much more of the latter than the former). Of Paul, who is preparing to leave the San Francisco suburbs for his transforma- tional visit to Italy, Leavitt writes, "his adolescence, which he had loathed, was as of today officially over. How interminable they had seemed to him, those years, a kind of endless Sunday aftemoon of the soul, every shop locked and shuttered!" Leavitt engages in the classic Wildeian quest for ever higher, more baroque and grandiose levels of arrogant overstatement. The excess verbiage becomes tiresome. Quickly. Ultimately, Leavitt banks a little too heavily on his protagonists' sexual orientation. Although "The Page Turner" is a strong story of the needs and actions of a set of well-formed characters, it is as if Leavitt ulti- mately expects the novelty of homosexuality (and its cultural trappings) to bring together the story's many threads. Rather than condensing to a searing, vivid conclusion, "The Page Turner" simply evaporates. Ameritech and General Cellular announce new reduced cellular airtime rates. Just $9.95* per month and 25 4 per minute any time of day! "Of Light and Darkness" shows that great stills don't make great game play. LIGHT Continued from page 13 Gar Hob, the Dark Lord of th Seventh Millennium, from bringing the Apocalypse and rescue the Prophetess Angel. To do this, one has to redeem the apparitions haunting the town by finding the Hall of Sin corre- sponding to the sin the apparition committed, the artifact belonging to the apparition and the correct combi- nation of red, blue or green orbs lying about the town. When the right col is flashed with the right artifact in the right Hall of Sin, the apparition is redeemed. Sound complicated and difficult? It is. Take the game's free tour or customize option to get a feel for the game. Also, this isn't one of these games where pressing Fl for the keyboard controls is all that's need- ed. Read the instruction booklet, or at least the quick reference guide. Just moving about in the game fun because of Bruvel's designs, but "Of Light and Darkness" also features the voice talents of actor great James Woods as Gar Hob and Lolita Davidovich as the captured Prophetess Angel. Davidovich is alright, but Woods hasa couple of great and funny lines, especially when the Chosen One fails (which will often happen to you). While parts of the game are ente tamning and the virtual landscape . awesome, the game falters in the most important aspect: game play. Interplay has created all these awe- some graphics, but they're so awe- some that the player can't really inter- act with them. Basically, you point and click with the mouse in "Myst"-type fashion to move around. But unlike "Myst," "Of Light and Darkness" doesn't offer any great riddles to explore aside fr finding the correct combinations room, colors and artifacts. So even "Myst" fans will become bored. Furthermore, the game's time limit to is too short, especially when starting out. 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