Changing Light

January 29, 2007
A painter takes a Czechoslovakian scientist into her home and then into her in Gallagher's sober and lyrical first work of fiction. (Her nonfiction includes Things Seen and Unseen and Practicing Resurrection.) Successful New York painter Eleanor Garrigue flees to the New Mexico desert to arouse her muse and escape from her cold marriage to her mentor. Leo Kavan, a Jewish physicist who escaped Europe in the nick of time, lands a spot as a researcher on the Manhattan Project. But after witnessing a colleague's death from radiation poisoning, a deeply distraught Leo goes AWOL from Los Alamos and turns up, delirious and fevered, near Eleanor's house. Eleanor, whose brother is a prisoner of war, finds Leo and nurses him back to health. As Leo recovers, the two find in one another reprieve from the war and their tormented pasts. Eleanor and Leo are marvelous characters-damaged but not prone to melodrama-and through them Gallagher touches on themes of loss, independence and intractable morality. Despite a sluggish start and some weak storytelling moments-Gallagher tends to pile on description, and some science-heavy passages could be better massaged-Gallagher's first foray into fiction distinguishes itself as an intriguing and spiritual tale.

December 1, 2006
A refugee from a failing marriage to a great painter who does not appreciate her work, Eleanor lives starkly in the New Mexico desert, helped by the wise Griefa and by local priest Davidhimself a refugee from the dangers of parish politics and secretly sweet on Eleanor. One day, Eleanor encounters a semiconscious man in the desert and rather daringly brings him to her little abode, nursing him back to health. She doesn't know that Leo has run off from the Manhattan Project, having been exposed to an unhealthy dose of radiation and desperate to persuade authorities that the nearly perfected bomb should not be used as planned. Eleanor thinks Leo may be a spy but still feels the need to help him, and Leo is dead set against revealing his secret to her, which sets up the small tension in this felicitous but somewhat distant story. Though the characters are nicely drawn, the urgency that belongs here doesn't materialize, and fact and fiction sit together a little too uneasily. This fiction debut by the author of "Practicing Resurrection" is a solid read but not a wholly persuasive one. For larger fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 10/15/06.]Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

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