The Reserve
By Russell Banks
304 pages. Harper.

When he's not dropping bombs over Fascist Spain, fighter pilot and irascible artist Jordan Groves is buzzing a serene Adirondack lake in his seaplane and trying to defuse bombshell Vanessa Cole, a fine-boned, rebellious socialite (think Katharine Hepburn) with a shameful secret. Russell Banks's latest novel, The Reserve (Harper), set in an upper-crust summer community in the 1930s, seethes with conflict—political, social, sexual, familial. Fasten your seat belts.