Love burns

"Things could be going better in Ilan's life. His book on astrophysics is months overdue. One of his female students at the Institute is stalking him. His bumbling colleagues want him to weigh in on their behalf in a faculty putsch. He's addicted to Valium. And he's just discovered that his beautiful, young wife is having an affair with a longhaired recent immigrant from Soviet Russia who looks alarmingly like Nick Nolte. One false step sets off a chain of events that will send Ilan reeling. Thank heavens mother is around to sort through the broken pieces of Ilan's existence and put…