THE SOUND OF ONE HAND

The hero of this book, Endicott, a socialite sculptor from New York, loses an eye after the war at the hands of a vengeful Japanese. Shocked, he settles down in Tokyo with a prostitute and then in a village with a beautiful and devoted young girl. Pitted against him is Renatti, an obsessive observer who demands an object more strong than himself on which to focus. And Endicott, impeded by confusion, but essentially powerful, is the perfect object. The two men act upon each other until finally Endicott understands the extent of his own strength and in this realization is no longer an expatriate, but a man who chooses to live in Japan, no longer a dependent on his mistress, but the master of a devoted woman. Aside from some interesting details on Japan, this allegory of the hunter within is turgidly told and the characters fail to reach, at any point, a level beyond that of the literary symbol. Mathematically convincing, the search of Endicott for Endicott is slow, tortuous, and in its most dramatic moments, depressing.