NEVER STEP ON A RAINBOW

by Winifred Wolfe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 1965

Jenny Frye-- maybe she doesn't seem like much to begin with; she works in cheap night spots making herself ""into a dirty joke three times a night"" and she lives in a grubby room while her nothing husband disappears for months at a time. But she sneaks right up on you and so does her story. Actually Jenny never walks on rainbows because she might spoil something, and without stepping on one, well, how can you say very much? Or about her fear of the dark man who brushes past her on the stairs whose racking cough can be heard through the thin wall of her room. Jenny has nice instincts and she goes to visit him, fix him a meal, and once he's well, he agrees to paint her picture even though he doesn't like to paint people any more. Ever since he put the mark of death on a girl who had modelled for his last picture. And they keep talking about it-- two beady-eyed busybodies downstairs-- Mrs. Keefer, her landlady, and Miss Milland, another roomer, who has the gift. Miss Molland also reads Tarot cards and they say a fair lady, a dark man, and... death.... On a superficial level, Mrs. Wolfei's novel entails quite a bit of facile legerdemain and it's full of startling surprises; but then it also implicates that whole world of subliminal fears and superstitions which suggest, distort and destroy. It's an insidious spellbinder.

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1965

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1965

Categories: FICTION