Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 1, 1994 TAG: 9404240272
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: reviewed by Sidney Barritt and Judy Kweller
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ Are you troubled by acne or Alzheimer's? Anything in between? If so, the answer may well be in this book.
Dr. Robert Giller hosts his own radio program in New York City and practices something called "complementary" medicine. This means he espouses mainstream diagnostic and therapeutic measures but `complements" that practice with generous dollops of vitamins, minerals, herbs and other "natural" ingredients. This latter practice is blessed abundantly by anecdote but minimally by scientific rigor. The best that can be said is that it probably does no harm and probably does little good.
One note of local interest: Dr. Giller recommends that patients with an ulcer drunk a quart of cabbage juice a day in addition to their regular therapy. Are you listening up there on Bent Mountain? What a boost to the economy of the cabbage growers that would be. -SIDNEY BARRITT
\ The Mask of Time. By Marius Gabriel. Bantam. $22.95.
"The Mask of Time" has a promotional "belly band" that offers "Satisfaction or Double Your Money Back!" While this is not a marketing platform that enhances buyer-confidence for the product, it is an attention-grabbing and interesting strategy.
Actually, "The Mask of Time" is a good book and doesn't need point-of- purchase promotion. It's a rich pudding of murder mystery, suspense, World War II Nazi atrocities, British class system and Russian intrigue - seasoned with sex, murder and mayhem - all set against the glittering world of Vail, Colorado.
The novel begins in World War II Europe when the Cipriani family takes in two young resistance fighters - an American Jew and a Brit from impoverished gentility. One of these men fathers a child with Candida, the beautiful young Cipriani daughter. She dies, alone and unmarried, in childbirth. Several converging plot lines later, Kate Kelly _ successful hotel marketer and the issue of this union - is following an obsessive search over several continents for the man she believes to be her father. When Kate is mysteriously attacked and left for dead, her daughter Anna - an investigative reporter - takes over.
This is a long novel - almost 600 pages - but it is well- written enough, exotic enough, fascinating and shocking enough to keep anyone reading.
-JUDY KWELLER\ Sidney Barritt is a Roanoke physician.
Judy Kweller is vice-president of an advertising agency. +ET
by CNB