VILLA MILO

God is indeed love in Xavier Domingo's first novel, which its publishers describe as ""cosmic allegory"". Bedrooms are transmuted into votive chapels and a Spanish bordello is the Paradise from which Paco, the young protagonist, is expelled. To anyone, with the possible exception of a philosophy professor specializing in ""Absurdity in the 20th Century Novel"", an organic understanding of Mils is well-nigh impossible. Nevertheless, as is the case with many sorts of avant-garde experimental forms, piece by piece, thought by thought, sentence by sentence, this is nothing less than high-voltage, enthralling writing replete with shock, sensuous imagery in the style of D.H. Lawrence. ""Interesting"" is the word commonly used to describe this sort of thing:- ""The World is only an ovary. It's a great spectacle, jammed full of lively foetuses"". ...""But I know that life is nothing more than a succession of acts of love for God and of human bad luck"". ...""They took me to Villa Milo and Dona Fili adopted me with an eye to the future. She gave me a Levitical education in this temple of Venus"". ...""She knew the devil's science, which is living in evil while doing good. Such is the nature of evil, to be the marrow and height of goodness"". Interesting, n'est-ce pas? In the absence of God, there's only Xavier Domingo.