The self-portrait of an artist, Tom Rowse, threads the filaments of sex and love, creation and self-abnegation into a substantial personal story. Rowse, who has little training but much talent, moves from Greenwich, England, to London, to Paris- where for fifteen years he leads a destitute existence with only occasional relationships. His long respect for Brenovska, a sculptor, gives his meeting with Helen- who had been Brenovska's wife- a special meaning, but he cannot accept her highhanded, dollar-handed patronage. He returns to England where for years he sustains an affair with Tansy, who does not share his work or his life (she keeps a husband in the background) but whose sexual allure is strong. A final break with Tansy follows one of his finest works; a new relationship with Helen does not replace her; and Tansy's death, and her unforgiving repudiation of him, leaves him with a sense of failure and self reproach expressed in his magnum opus. He gives up sculpture- engages in a meaningless marriage- and finally elects poverty and solitude for his last years.... A portrait of a visionary who cannot reconcile his dream with the reality of his desire- this is old worldly in its handling, other worldly in its concerns and rather reminiscent of an earlier period in the English novel. A market should not be too hard to find.