THE SOLDIER

by R.C. Binstock ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 1996

Second-novelist Binstock follows the elegant Trees of Heaven (1995) with a disheveled exploration of weighty matters: familial attachment and loss, and the complex architecture of a writer's inner world. Phillip, a talented but lonely 46-year-old novelist, has agreed to allow his 23-year-old cousin Jennie—on the rebound from an abusive relationship—to come stay in his quiet New Hampshire home. The kind of writer who stores his manuscript-in-progress in a safe deposit box, Phillip has analyzed the fragile magic that results in finished pages, and he's sent past lovers away out of deference to his work. So he watches himself in dismay as he takes increasing pleasure in his attractive cousin's company and her admiration. As the sexual tension builds, other characters' stories intervene: There's Jane, a local apple-grower who loved Phillip and still mourns the end of their relationship. There's the ghost of Bertha, the previous owner of Phillip's house, who hovers about, spying. And there's Sutherland, a character in Phillip's novel, a soldier of pained sensibilities, suffering as his tattered company fights the Civil War. After much mutual circling, Jennie proposes sex and the cousins find bliss in each other's beds. But troubles loom: Phillip's moodiness emerges, Jane contacts Jennie, and Jennie's violent ex arrives still in the throes of obsession. While these matters develop, there's much to admire here: Binstock's prose is spare and graceful, and he skillfully weaves multiple perspectives into something resembling a cohesive whole. Phillip is complex and always interesting as he self-consciously attempts to keep hold of a vocation that defies conscious control and a present shaped by past losses. Jennie, however, is a flat and platitude- spouting character; the result is that the central love story lacks ballast. Still, between Binstock's stylistic virtuosity and the ample psychological insights lodged in Phillip's story—and in those of many of the marginal characters—there are substantial rewards in this ambitious if flawed novel.

Pub Date: May 16, 1996

ISBN: 1-56947-059-6

Page Count: 282

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION