FIVE DAYS IN PARIS

Steel (Lightning, p. 422, etc.), the Queen of Conjunctions (both human and grammatical) returns, this time with a page-turning, incantatory love story that's hard to beat and harder to put down. Two well-heeled lovers meet at the Ritz in Paris, ``and a lifetime forever change[s] in a single moment.'' Successful and immaculately shirted Peter Haskell, pharmaceutical bigwig, has come to France to expedite the manufacturing of Vicotec, a drug that—if the lab tests are positive—will revolutionize cancer care. Peter, 44, and so well turned out that no one knows he was once a poor Wisconsin farmboy, married Katie, the boss's daughter, and compromised his ideals all the way to the tune of three sons and a large, splendid house on six acres in Greenwich, Connecticut. Now, forced to wait five days for Vicotec's test results, he spies Olivia Thatcher, 34, the big-eyed, waiflike, neglected wife of Senator Anderson Thatcher, and becomes instantly fascinated. The night of a bomb threat, Peter follows tragic Olivia (she's lost a son to cancer) down the Champs-ElysÇes. Later, after six hours at a Montmartre cafÇ, the two have bonded for life. When Olivia is too miserable to return to her empty life at the Ritz, Peter follows her again—this time to a quaint fishing village in the south of France, where, after salade niáoise, they become lovers. But each has obstacles keeping them apart. Peter returns to New York to battle with his family over Vicotec; Olivia promises Andy, a presidential wannabe, that she'll stick it out through the election. But will the lovers be able to continue behind their old facades? In the end, with nothing but each other, and a few other little goodies, they face the future together. A bread-and-butter chanson d`amour that no one could write better—and many have tried. (Literary Guild main selection)