A RIDE ON THE MILKY WAY

In this lenitive first novel, dealing with coming of age of Romanian-born, Paris-bound Ania, Ania seems to slip away into the shadow of an autobiographical self while the story, such as it is, dissipates in drifts of sweet, sensory detail, loving and sometimes reiterative descriptions--the strudel in the stove, the hay in the fields.... During a first summer, Ania is still a schoolgirl in braids, when she meets Jean-Paul, a puppeteer, becomes his sorcerer's apprentice. Even when he leaves, the magic endures. During a second one, she is at a camp in the Alpes Maritimes when she experiences her first exposure to love, to death. And finally she is seen in Paris where she looks up Jean-Paul, now an aging man trying to recover a little of his youth through her, losing a little of his mystery.... Rather gentle, rather pretty, rather triste--for the mimosa sensibility.