NAKED TO MINE ENEMIES
By
Susan Yorke's second novel (The Widow- 1950) is a triptych account of a young man, Peter Frame, and his sphere of influence which extends from a small town in the U.S. to Buenos Aires. Charming, intelligent, satanic, Peter is dissected three times- by his sister, his mistress and his wife. His sister Elizabeth describes a significant psychological trauma when as an adolescent Peter is forced to sleep on a cot in the dining room, losing his own room to one of his mother's boarders. Soon after this, Peter leaves home for B.A. and after a fiery affair with Simone Carcabello- whose real name is Sadie- he falls in love with Molly who is married to one of the wealthiest men there. Peter's debauches, and his incidental affairs with a native girl and with an American ice skater, still return him to Molly's total love, until she refuses to share him with another woman. A ""for women only"" job which is occasionally subtle and more usually slick and shiny.