Tilting at Windmills

With a lyrical tale of love and loss, Joseph Pittman joins the ranks of beloved authors such as Elizabeth Berg and Nicholas Sparks as he carries readers on an epic journey -- through the joys and tears of a life renewed -- and chronicles a very special love. At thirty-four, Brian Duncan has it all. The trendy Manhattan life, a fast-track job at a high-powered PR firm, a gorgeous fiancee -- a coworker with a future as exciting as his own. Then, in a single moment of deception, Brian's world crumbles. Bitterly betrayed, he decides to toss away all he has ever worked for and leave the city's busy streets behind.He finds himself irresistibly drawn to the road. On a hillside along New York's Hudson River Valley, Brian sees a giant windmill, its sails transfixing in their beauty. And running down the green hill toward the magnificent windmill is a lovely little girl, her blond hair floating in the wind. Her name is Janey, and she and her quietly alluring mother Annie, who owns the windmill, strike a chord in Brian's heart.It is a turning point in Brian's life, as he finds the small-town charms of Linden Corners comforting. He stays a day, and then another, and before long he has become another resident of this sleepy little world. Is it the windmill that has inspired him, or Annie Sullivan, whose elusive quality matches Brian's own questions about life? Even as Annie and Brian feel their relationship deepening into passion, the uncertainties they battle loom large -- perhaps too large. Through the force of nature and the hand of fate, Brian learns that love comes in unexpected ways.From Publishers WeeklyPittman's debut novel is a feel-good fantasy about an ad man who leaves Manhattan in emotional disarray, only to find true love in a bucolic burg in upstate New York. Brian Duncan is the creative force behind a growing New York ad agency; he is dating a sexy co-worker, and he enjoys the stimulation of city life. But when girlfriend Maddie Chasen hops into bed with the ad agency president during Brian's brief battle with hepatitis, Brian comes unglued and quits his job without confronting either one about the infidelity. Instead, he plans an extended aimless journey that ends up being a short trip upstate to tiny Linden Corners, where the natives welcome him with an almost surreal friendliness. Within days, he has a job and a new life, and the final piece of the puzzle falls into place when he becomes involved with Annie Sullivan, a widowed single mother whose dedication to maintaining the town's landmark windmill touches a romantic chord in Duncan's soul. When life in Linden Corners begins to take on a permanent feel, Duncan heads back to Manhattan to square his accounts with Maddie and his boss, a venture that almost backfires when Maddie pays a sudden return visit upstate and tries to sabotage his new existence. Pittman has a nice feel for pace and place, but he approaches his characters and scenes with the saccharine brio of a Hallmark card. Though not without romantic merit, his book reads like an expanded script for a TV movie. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.ReviewThe Denver Post Memorable. Will resonate with readers. -- Review