Volume 21, Number 5 · April 4, 1974
Gigantist
By Christopher Ricks
The Eye of the Storm
by Patrick White
Viking, 608 pp., $8.95
An old Australian woman of eighty-six, inventive, malignant, capriciously generous, all but blind, lies in her bed. If Walter Pater's words are true—'To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life'—then Elizabeth Hunter, at the brink of death, evinces more of life's success than do any of the people who come to her bedside. Her gemlike flame is fed by her actual gems (both she and the novel itself make much play with her jewelry and her teasing largesse), and it glitters too in her eyes: 'Again there was that moment of splintered sapphires, before the lids, dropping like scales, extinguished it.'
Review, 2494 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. |