"CATCHING HEAVEN" BY SANDS HALL
 By CATHY BURKE
 Source: New York Post

Sands Hall's quirky debut novel, "Catching Heaven," features two disgruntled sisters - one an actress, the other an artist - who each wish for what the other has in a sweet but often predictable story of middle-age angst and reconciliation.

The sisters, 39-year-old New Mexico artist Lizzie and 41-year-old Hollywood actress Maud, fuss and fret about their life choices, but their conflicts with one another seem no more sophisticated than a fight between 8-year-olds over which one Mom and Dad loved best.

Still, there are enough flashes of heart and soul in this hip Southwest-style soap opera to make the effort worthwhile.

The story begins as Maud bolts from her less-than-stellar TV commercial career and whiny songwriter boyfriend and heads for Marengo, New Mexico, where sister Lizzie lives.

"Lizard," as she's called - a college instructor and greeting-card artist - has problems of her own: She's got three kids by three different fathers. Basically, she likes being pregnant and nursing but can't handle relationships with men.

Through these two nutty ladies' lives float an array of cowboys, Native Americans, starry eyed youngsters and Jake, an aging musician with middle-age issues of his own.

Now back home with her sister, Maud finds a small house and job as a barroom singer and piano teacher. She then throws herself into torrid affairs - with a Native American activist and a young cowboy. And she gets involved in the life of Lizzie's middle child, a third-grader named Summer.

Maud also gets cozy with Sam, an elderly Native American who is Lizzie's best friend, and Jake, who is dad to Lizzie's youngest child, Theo.

With all these complications, it's surprising "Catching Heaven" doesn't sink from its own weight.

Yet there is something achingly sad about these sisters' realization that some things in life have simply passed them by. And it's that simple truth that makes "Catching Heaven" a nice catch.