The sentimentalist, Jessamyn West tells us early in [the] hauntingly symphonic ["A Matter of Time"] looks toward the future; the romanticist looks toward the past.

Or is it the other way around? It hardly matters….

[The] art of the novel, like the art of other dramas, depends upon bringing questions to a resolution. And Miss West, who is decidedly an artist … is not about to waste her gifts in harmonizing the old song about sentimental you and romantic me.

Her most profound statement comes when she says: "The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future."

That is her major theme. Now we see the true pertinence of her title, "A Matter of Time." What has so far seemed a meandering tale about two contrasted sisters growing up in a rambunctious California family faces the ultimate questions of life and love and...