THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9607010177
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY BERNICE GROHSKOPF
LENGTH: 69 lines
LEGACIES
STARLING LAWRENCE
Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 243 pp. $22.
Legacies, a collection of short stories, is the first published book by Starling Lawrence, editor in chief at the publishing house, W.W. Norton & Co. His stories open obliquely, from a far corner of the narrative, until sufficient information brings them into focus.
``The Gift,'' one of the two longest in the collection, involves a custom-made shirt and its significance in an adulterous relationship. The narration remains vague for 14 pages, then abruptly, but briefly, switches to straightforward exposition: ``He was a busy man; he was ambitious; he was also married.''
In this skillfully written story, a man is brought to the edge of derangement by his obsession with his newly discovered taste for sado-masochistic sex. The unnamed woman in the story who initiates him is sexually experienced, eager to introduce him to new sexual ``pleasures,'' not unlike May in ``Reunion,'' the longest in the collection, also concerning adultery.
``Reunion'' opens as May is riding a bus to meet her former lover. On the journey she guiltily reflects on her preference for the passionate nature of her unreliable lover, compared with the tamer nature of her ingenuous, trusting husband. But the improbable ending of ``Reunion,'' like that of ``Desire Lines,'' has her committing an unbelievable act.
``Desire Lines'' is a splendid metaphor, but the title seems unrelated to this story of a woman's passion for bird-watching carried to extremes. Set in New York City in Central Park West, it reveals Lawrence's extensive knowledge of birds. Cora, who lives and works in the city, is so enamored of birds that she risks going into the dangerous Ramble alone at night, and spending the night there, something a New York City woman would never do. Lawrence knows his birds, but not women; his female characters tend to be ill-defined.
Two stories focusing on the wandering thoughts and memories of an older person approaching death are not very successful. But the three tales told from the point of view of a small boy are the finest in the collection. Lawrence accurately evokes a child's mind. One senses that Lawrence is drawing on his own memories because it seems to be the same boy trying to make sense of the inexplicable behavior of adults: promises broken in ``Legacies''; disdainful attitudes toward people called Jews in ``The Chosen People''; and a mysterious family relationship in ``Immortality,'' told as a painful memory of the boy grown to manhood.
There are careless lapses in Lawrence's stories: How can one ``look at the body, which had fallen forward out of the undergrowth'' and see ``the open fly on the trousers?'' How did May, in ``Reunion,'' a simple uneducated woman, learn to love Venetian painter Tiepolo?
In ``The Gift,'' what is the reader to make of the fact that the significant custom-made shirt belonged to the central character's brother, who was killed in an accident, and that his wife, pursuing her doctorate in philosophy, finds God in the Columbia University Library? Perhaps I missed important clues to understanding the man's obsession. And what does Lawrence mean when he describes something as ``clammy'' with heat?
Although two of these stories have been awarded prizes, the collection is uneven. Lawrence is a fine writer when at his best, but some stories seem more like the work of a promising student in a creative writing class. I think of other talented writers whose work is not being published and wonder what the publication of this book by a highly respected publisher has to do with Lawrence's position in the publishing world. MEMO: Bernice Grohskopf is a free-lance book reviewer in Charlottesville
who specializes in 19th century British literature. by CNB