Volume 29, Number 10 · June 10, 1982
Straw Dogs
By James Wolcott
Virginie: Her Two Lives
by John Hawkes
Harper and Row, 215 pp., $13.95
Sabbatical: A Romance
by John Barth
Putnam's, 366 pp., $14.95
When Lao-tse wrote that 'the sage is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs,' he provided an epigraph for the cruel frivolities of John Hawkes's and John Barth's latest fiction, in which the hapless characters are raped, carved up, burned with cigarettes, bestialized. Characteristically, Hawkes's novel is a solemn, black-crepe affair, while Barth's is antic and disheveled; but in both books the characters are pulled through the wringer and impatiently slapped on the line like so many lumps of wash.
Review, 2722 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |