Patti Davis, the actress daughter of Ronald

and Nancy Reagan, has written a surpris-

ing, moving, and candidly autobiographical

novel about growing up in the public eye

during the other Vietnam War--the war

at home.

The heroine of Home Front, Beth Can-

field, is a typically American young woman

who wants to love her parents, learn to love a

man, and build a life for herself in peace and

privacy--without political interference. But

politics was her lather s life. At dinnertime

when Beth was a little girl and her father

would ask her opinion of something polit-

ical, she would avoid the issue by dramat-

ically falling off her chair.

But once Rober! Canfield is elected gov

ernor of California, there s no more falling

off her chair for Beth. As she comes of age

amid the tumult of the Vietnam era, politics

begins to divide her from her genial but ideological father, and from her mother

Harriet Canfield, a .strong-willed woman

fiercely loyal to her husband s dream: the

presidency. Beth becomes not only an

estranged daughter, but a political liability.

Beth also finds herself falling in love with

her friend Greg, who joins the Marines

gung-ho for combat in Vietnam He brings

the growing conflict over the war directly

into Beth s bedroom. Soon, the pressure on

Beth becomes almost intolerable--pressure

that could ruin her future, her love for Greg,

and her father s run for the presidency.

When Greg returns wartorn from Viet-

nam, Beth must confront the choices of a

lifetime: between her famous parents and

her fragile selfhood, and between who she is

and who she needs to be.

PATTI DAVIS, the daugh er of Ronald and

Nancy Reagan, grew up in Los Angeles,

attended Northwestern University, and now

lives in Southern California, where she

works as a stage and television actress. She is

writing a new novel.

MAUREEN STRANGE FOSTER Js tile author of

two highly praised novels, Beginners and

Sparks. She lives in Los Angeles.