A Shooting Star

 I have read several books by Wallace Stegner including  Big Rock Candy Mountain, Angle of Repose, and The Spectator Bird. All three were wonderful books. A Shooting Star just didn't measure up to his other works. The main character, Sabrina Castro, is a narcissistic drama queen who possibly has borderline personality disorder. Born into wealth, she is unfulfilled. She is jealous of people who have to work for a living. Although she, too, could work for a living, she knows she doesn't have to so she doesn't. The story is set on a peninsula south of San Francisco. Sabrina leaves her husband, a physician to the wealthy, and goes home to her mother's estate. She worries about herself and is rude to others. Sabrina is not a likeable person unlike her friend Barbara. Barbara is married to Leonard, a public high school teacher, and with their two girls they have a happy marriage and a satisfying life. Barbara and Leonard and the two girls stay up one night watching a meteor shower with Sabrina. Leonard entertains the group with his stories. Barbara and Leonard seem like a real family. The rest of the characters act like they are in a soap opera.