THE LOVE PAVILION

by Paul Scott ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

An enigmatic, Eastern quest is on one hand the official (military) attempt to find Brian Saxby, after his disappearance into the Malayan jungle to organize guerrilla reprisals against the Japanese collaborators. On another- and higher- level it is an attempt to explain a mystic manque, who from his first years in the East as a ""god-hunter"" lost all hope of finding a faith, and to understand his strange incarnations as a ""fire-eater"", a ""flower dreamer"", and finally, in the disguise of a Sikh, a ""shaman"" who became a legend. It is his friend, Tom Brent, who comes closest to getting the answers before Saxby is found, no longer alive; but in so doing he is left with the bitter knowledge of his own deault- a default which made possible not only the abandonment of his friend, but also of the Eurasian prostitute with whom he had fallen in love in the pavilion consecrated to its pursuit. So that at the end one is left with the realization that Saxby's ""brand of doubt"" was stronger and purer than Brent's fallible and limited ""brand of faith""..... For those who remember the earlier The Mark of the Warrior, this again brings considerable stress and suspense to bear in its reconnaissance along several levels- physical, psychological and spiritual. An interesting novel.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow-Sloane

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1960

Categories: FICTION