Books: New Fiction
(2 of 2)
His courtship of Hilda is punctuated by Casimir's sky-scanning Delphic queries: "Are the Life-Gods and the Fate-Gods willing?" Hilda is willing, and there is scarcely a dull moment spent with the count as he 1) sees his first roller-skating show wrecked by a storm, 2) witnesses a local bigwig being shot to death by a bordello madam, 3) two-times Hilda with a carnival doxy billed as ''Phazma the Phlame Girl." 4) has his second roller-skating show filched by a double-crossing partner, 5) goes back to the sea with visions of greater roller rinks. Obviously, Author Sancton, 41, a New Orleans newspaper man and onetime managing editor of the New Republic, intended these assorted ribbons of plot to package some large symbolic meaning. He is much better when he avoids his fuzzy cosmic fumbling and sticks to camera-eye reporting on jazz joints, brothels and the irrecoverable sights and sounds of New Orleans before World War I.
*Member of TIME Inc.'s editorial staff from 1929 to 1948; no kin to turn-of-the-century Novelist Frank (short for Benjamin Franklin) Norris (The Octopus, The Pit), or his sister-in-law, Kathleen Norris, dean of women's magazine novelists.
- « PREV PAGE
- 1
- 2
Most Popular »
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- Scientology : The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power
- Black Friday Sales Were Encouraging, Retailers Say
- Will Dubai's Financial Problems Spread?
- Germany's Doubts About Afghanistan Grow After Revelations About Air Strike
- How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time
- Why Big Shopping Bargains Are Bad News For America
- Obama's 'Mistakes': Way Too Early to Judge
- Behind the Philippines' Maguindanao Massacre
- The '00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade From Hell
- The Growing Backlash Against Overparenting
- How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time
- Will Dubai's Financial Problems Spread?
- Why Big Shopping Bargains Are Bad News For America
- Energizer Bunnies: Turning Rabbits into Green Fuel
- Black Friday Sales Were Encouraging, Retailers Say
- Scientology : The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power
- Is Gene Therapy Finally Ready for Prime Time?
- Behind the Philippines' Maguindanao Massacre







RSS