CANNIBALS IN SICILY and THE BATHING HUTS

by Monique Lange ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1988

These two introspective novellas, best-sellers in France, are touted for depicting turning points in a woman's life, but, in translation, they're so slow-paced they can't quite manage a pirouette--just a self-centered spin. Sara, in Cannibals in Sicily, is too wrapped up in grief, following the death of her mother, to function as a wife to her husband Jean or a mother to her only child, Nathalie. So Jean, who narrates, takes her on a therapeutic trip to Sicily and, sure enough, little by little, she learns to let go, to stop being gloomy and peevish, to stop making remarks like ""All living things remind me she is dead."" In The Bathing Huts, the heroine, in her early 50s, is unnamed but might well be an older edition of Sara. This novel also centers on travel as therapy. In this case, Roscoff, a town in Brittany, is the destination, under doctor's orders, for the reluctant and depressed heroine. In Roscoff, she meets an old man who offers her the use of his bathing hut at the beach, and the uneasy relationship that blossoms between the two characters helps the woman sort out her feelings above love and aging. Lange has a knack for the picturesque. She makes us see the catacombs in Italy, the fields of artichokes--like ""clenched fists""--in Brittany. She's also skillful at painstakingly peeling away her characters' protective layers of deception. But, all in all, these works are too passive and self-absorbed; for all their soul-baring, these characters remain elusive. And their dialogue doesn't help--it's as clumsy as subtitles on a French movie.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Marion Boyars--dist. by Kampmann (9 East 40 St., NY., NY 10016)

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION