THE EIGHTH SQUARE

by Herbert Lieberman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 1973

As evidenced in Crawlspace (1971) Lieberman has a cat's whiskered sense of claustrophobic dimensions in his no-exit tales of terror. Yet his malnourished characters and dialogue pull against the situation all the way. Here a group of neighbors -- all acquainted, some very briefly, in childhood -- pace out, in ancient New England tradition, the boundaries of their wooded holdings with a surveyor. Who is the elderly giant, Mr. Rogers, with an uncanny sense of limits and intersections? Group tensions are there from the beginning among a gross, self-appointed leader, his passionate wife who hates him, the slightly malicious spouse of an agreeable Englishman, a girlish spinster of mystic tendencies, a glum misfit brooding over old wounds, a young apprentice surveyor, and the onlooker -- a doctor. However when Rogers suddenly has a heart seizure and babbles directions which sound like an alien code, these lost souls grapple with individual and collective fear. Then comes feuding, violence and a burial in the darkling groves. The ending is a truly marvelous invention and you might just as well race through the tiresome earlier proceedings to get to it. The title refers to Alice's chimeric goal, and it is unfortunate that Lieberman couldn't have warmed up his pawns from the first square for such a chilling route.

Pub Date: April 6, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: McKay

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1973

Categories: FICTION