The literary precedents are those alluded to in the novel itself: Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce have dealt with the past, the careless nouveau rich, and the delights of sensuality respectively. There is also a resonance of Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949) takes a hard look at his past. So does Shakespeare's King Lear. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet face the same family conflicts that originally keep Leo and Jane apart. Not all these works take the optimistic view that there is a destiny that controls our lives, however roughhewn they may seem. This is the theme that distinguishes Greeley's fiction.

Greeley's novel also incorporates many conventions of best-selling romances.

There is a strong but sensitive hero, a heroine who needs salvation, and an impediment that keeps them apart. The story is sprinkled...