SEBASTIAN: Or Ruling Passions

by Lawrence Durrell ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 1984

The fourth volume of Durrell's five-book ""quincunx"" (cf. Monsieur, Livia, Constance) is also the most readable thus far--with somewhat fewer swirls and curlicues in the narration, World War II is now ending. Constance--lover of gnostic Affad (a.k.a. Sebastian), sister of Nazi-fied Livia (supposedly dead)--is enjoying the newly peaceful life in Geneva, continuing her psychoanalytic training under the brilliant thinker Schwartz. Then, however, Affad wrenchingly breaks off the relationship with Constance, returning instead to Alexandria and his mystic-brotherhood responsibilities. Even worse, while in transit, Affad misses a letter from the gnostics, informing him of the day of his death. (This is the final bit of energizing knowledge which allows gnostics to attain the full extension of their gnoses.) So Affad comes back for the letter--and for a self-indulgent resumption of passion with Constance. But he meets his death almost immediately: he's fatally stabbed by one of Constance's patients--a psychopath who mistakes Affad's sleeping form for that of Constance. Thus, finally, hustling the Affad character offstage rather abruptly, Durrell hauls Livia back on: she's not dead, it turns out, but merely a concentration-camp survivor. This time, thankfully, Durrall delivers such creaky plot turns without too many flourishes. On the other hand, readers will still have to wade through a sediment of puns, animadversions, and pseudo-philosophizing--some of it just schoolboy-rude, some of it distasteful. (Durrell puts lots of nasty anti-Semitic rhetoric into the mouth of Jewish doctor Schwartz--a device which falls to disguise the bigotry.) And only loyal members of the Durrell coterie will feel obliged to continue along with this sporadically intriguing, essentially cranky and privately obsessive saga.

Pub Date: April 3, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION