WELCOME TO XANADU

by Nathaniel Benchley ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 15, 1968

Almost annually, with the puzzling persistence of Ground Hog Day, the baffling Mr. Benchley tunnels forth, performs a fandango of some skill, and vanishes immediately from the consciousness, leaving only the nagging impression that something rather fine, of a high comic order, could have evolved at any time. Benchley's beleaguered ones--intruded upon by anything from Russians to madmen--are decent, honestly insular as a beach plum, and, in the New England sense of coping only with the cope-able, ""sensible."" In this novel, Doris Mae Winter, sixteen, doggedly performing rench hand labor for her father's miserable holdings in California flatlands; who could slug a History teacher (if she was going to catch it or failing she might as well ""dish it out""); who could polish off a rattlesnake; who was an unenthusiastic veteran of a tiresome sexual encounter; is kidnapped by Leonard Hatch, escaped from a Massachusetts mental institution. Xanadu is the mountain hide-out, ringed with booby traps, and things are rather rough for Doris until Leonard's Pygmalion efforts on behalf of culture and the beauty of the uncommon, begin to transcend Doris' earnest efforts to ""cope"" into excitement in living. Before the troopers come the desert flower and the madman (not that mad--flashbacks tell of mother-smothering) touch poetry and humanity simultaneously. Some hilarious moments, some moving, but somehow Benchley's curious diffidence prevents him from writing with deep involvement. However, this one is, as always, readable, better than most, and probably cinema-bound.

Pub Date: April 15, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION