QUINX or The Ripper's Tale

by Lawrence Durrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1985

In the final volume of Durrell's dense, hermetic Avignon Quintet, fledgling novelist Aubrey Blanford, psychoanalyst Constance and her lover Sylvie (a former patient whose adventures were told in the first book of the series, Monsieur, 1975) return to Blanford's home in Avignon for more talk about sex, gnosticism and the spirit of man. Like a cast of characters assembled for a high-school class reunion, personalities from the earlier books also converge on the chateau: Lord Galen, a Jew on the trail of the treasure of the Knights Templar; Rob Sutcliffe, a novelist; Toby, a student of magic; the Egyptian prince who throws orgies; Sabine, a scholar-gypsy-tantric lover. And all of them become engaged in the search for the treasure of the Knights Templar, a search with spiritual overtones because it parallels the search for man's divine soul. However, this is a book not so much about a spiritual quest as about the pleasures of obscure, incomprehensible talk. Pontificating like mad, Durrell's characters hold forth like a house party of alchemists: ""I myself realize that sex is not dying, it is coming of age with the freedom of the woman. Its real secrets are as yet only half-fathomed in the West. The mathematics of the sexual act remain obscure. The power of five is really the riddle of the Quinx--solve it if you dare! But the problem of Julio is really a very grave political one for us. Unless they are rediscovered and the shrine of Sara given back to us, the Tribe can neither march nor procreate!"" For the most part, Quinx is non-narrative, rambling, without coherence or apparent structure. If that hasn't deterred readers of the quintet's earlier volumes, they may enjoy this last of a series; everyone else will find it difficult to penetrate.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION