THE RULES OF THE GAME

Just off-Beat, are a group of Americans abroad- trying to find some direction for their lives beyond the radius of their own egocentricity. This is certainly true of Peter Swain, a fairly clever composer bypassing the shabby economic and social circumstances of his youth, now working on his cantata on the Spanish island of Ibiza. Caroline, ex-Boston, ex-Radcliffe, joins him there in his $20.00 a month villa. While there are no physical comforts (running water), there is also no physical satisfaction-- and Caroline goes on to Italy, Peter goes back to Paris. In Paris, Peter accepts the little attentions of Rupert- a homosexual, but is unwilling to pay for them; on the other hand he is really attracted, perhaps for the first time, to Rebecca Straus, who is trying to lose her identity by becoming involved in a small, save-Indochina, militant movement, but it is Caroline, perhaps malciously, who enlightens Rebecca, returns her to America and Peter to his music.... A first novel in which expatriates provide- for sophisticates- some moments of sorry truth but little real sympathy. The handling is facile, acerb.