| Once again we are in Martin's fevered New Orleans (Set in Motion, 1978), where this time a middle-aged government clerk (""dull and thin. . . of no origins"") plays the unlikely role of Pan-lover in a bayou paradise dominated by two stunning, dissimilar, and faintly sinister females. His name is Claude, and it is while squiring about town Mona, a cacaphonous and vacuous widow, that he fastens onto the clear, cool eyes of Alexandra--she is tending bar, and she is his ""one shot at eternal life."" Bold, handsome Alex takes Claude casually and easily as a lover, so, intoxicated, he chucks job, dingy apartment, and Mona (of course) for ""Beaufort,"" an impressive home amidst cypress, moss, and ivy. Beaufort is the retreat of Alex's best and only friend, Diana, beautiful, and great with an illegitimate child--no one seems to care whose. Also on the premises are a black housekeeper, whose mother raised Alex, and bourbon-soaked Banjo, usually hidden away deep in the maze he's been constructing. Claude is lapped in luxury and thrilled by his new sexual potency; Diana plays the piano and awaits the baby; and Alex, whose hobby is knife-throwing, rouses Claude to ever greater efforts. Claude's enchantment is never dispelled, but it turns increasingly chilling as he learns that he physically resembles a man whom the women had fought over years before--and that the man was, according to Banjo, knifed to death. And there's that hint of a deep, disturbing intimacy between Diana and Alex. Claude will hear three versions of his lookalike's story, and when he falls ill, murder seems to be in the air. Then, by accident--or was it?--Claude is forced to deliver Diana's baby, which brings the two closer together, while Alex fumes, nearly zaps a whining, visiting Mona with her cutlery, and eventually leaves Claude desolate. . . and toying with unanswered questions. Irony, which could have distanced the two implausible spider-women and the ecstatically buzzing Claude, is mainly absent and much-missed here; yet there's much exotic and inventive strumming around this delightfully indelicate air. Absorbing--but for adventurous readers only, who'll relish Martin's unique imagination and may even cotton to her humorless intensity. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission. |
