| Crosspoints A Novel of Choice Set primarily in New York’s glamorous and ever controversial art world, CROSSPOINTS is the story of one sculptor’s struggle to regain or reject the artistic and idealistic visions of his youth. Leon Skillman is rich and famous, cynical and smart. Handsome and glib, he is the darling of socialites, the press, art critics and gossip columnists. It is his introduction to Tara Niforous, Greek-American archeologist, that disrupts his smug existence, bringing his art into conflict because of his unanticipated love for her. Tara lives for her ancient bronze and marble "gods" but falls irresistibly in love with Leon, who looks and acts like one in the flesh. Tara’s older Greek employer and nautical department head of Athens’s National Archeological Museum, Dimitrios Kokonas, is silently and profoundly in love with Tara, who was previously his protégé and is now his colleague. Intensely romantic but painfully shy about love, he vows to come out in the open at last and fight for her. Settings in Greece, Turkey, Palm Beach and Manhattan provide exotic backgrounds for explorations into archeology, high society, sex, drugs, money, family, fame, art and love. Characters include socialites, painters, sculptors, and art critics and dealers. Contemporary and traditional art forms, ancient Greece and present-day America, free will and determinism, and reason and mysticism are explored within the framework of a love triangle that must be resolved between Tara and the two men who love her. The story is about choice—the many choices offered to various characters in the novel, as they are offered to each of us in real life. Kostas Niforous (Tara’s Greek-born father) calls these moments of choice "Crosspoints," as he tries to teach his rebellious sixteen-year-old daughter, Kally, his lessons about life. Hence, the novel’s thematic title, CROSSPOINTS A Novel of Choice, comes to life on every page. |