A MAN AND HIS MASTER

ouhasse was a respected family man of thirty-nine, successful in business, an oak tree of responsibility, when he remet an old school friend, the suave Canavaggio. Throwing his past to the winds, Jouhasse quickly became immersed in Canavaggio's life, to the exclusion of all else, until, other ties set aside, he moved in with Canavaggio, to care for him. In a sense the dominated Jouhasse becomes the dominator in his self- role as valet, for he performs every service, even to washing Canavaggio as he would a baby. Still, Canavaggio's influence persists through the illness which overtakes him and which leads to his installation at Jouhasse's home, where Jouhasse's too submits to him. At the last, Canavaggio kills himself, leaving his young son to the tender (?) mercies of the submissive servant-lord Jouhasse. Written in intense, sophomoric prose of a confession of passion, this tires and repels more than it illuminates or titillates; still, it is in the present European tradition of Genet and may have some small special following.