SOURCE: Eder, Richard. Review of Children of Light, by Robert Stone. Los Angeles Times Book Review (23 March 1986): 3.

In the following review, Eder asserts that Children of Light suffers from overwritten characters, poor dialogue, and a plot that dissolves as the book progresses.

[In Children of Light] Gordon Walker writes florid movie scripts and acts King Lear on the stage. He belongs to the Southern California beautiful-and-damned set. His life is a mess, his children are a mess, his wife has left, and he is off to Baja California to look up Lee Verger, a former beautiful-and-damned playmate, who is starring in a film based on one of his scripts.

But every time Gordon does something emotional, he needs to stop for a hamburger. Before he makes love: a hamburger. Afterwards: a hamburger. When he sets out for Baja: a hamburger. When he spots Lee, wreathed in glory and...