THE WEREWOLF

This interesting, virile, philosophic novel has been ruined for a general audience by an almost unreadable translation. In short chapter-stitches Sandemose embroiders the life of three people as it ""happened in Felicia's time,"" (1934-1958). He moves back and forth, brings in new characters, all of whom participate in the basic story without really affecting its inexorable progress. The central figures are Erling, a dipsomanic writer; Jan Venhaug, a gentle farmer; his wife Felicia, who is Erling's mistress (only one of her sexual problems); and Julie, Erik's bastard daughter who ends up in Jan's bed. The characters are deliberately submerged and blurred, their oddities explained as the work of the Werewolf, the destructive force in everyone. The translator also seems to have been under his influence: sentences move awkwardly, backwards. A volume in the above-mentioned series