AN UNKNOWN WOMAN

by Frederic Morton ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 1976

For all the little numbers that he does on and around his heroine, Morton's Trudy Ellner really does remain as ""unknown"" on the last page as she was on the first. It soon becomes evident that it is the settings and the commentary on the scene rather than the character which is the author's chief focus. In a prose style distractingly frenetic we are given Trudy's trajectory from Washington Heights to Lichtenstein, 20 years Dater, as she awaits the appeasement of her son who has hijacked a plane for his own good left-wing purposes. Trudy has moved from sneaker-clad activist--a ""West Side Joan of Arc""--to international celebrity through her association with the famous men who are attracted to her for reasons not altogether compelling. Her first husband is a virtually deified scholar-artist and former concentration camp inmate who makes straight her way through the groves of academe. Then there is the continuing liaison with the candidate who proVides lessons in high power politics. Finally, there is marriage to the oil magnate who has been manipulating the dramatis personae all along. And Ronnie, her son, who always was a little difficult to handle. How did she get into this maze, she asks herself? You may be too fatigued by the garrulous guided tour to care.

Pub Date: May 27, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic-Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1976

Categories: FICTION