From Publishers Weekly
In this fussy, posturing novel by poet Sobin ( Voyaging Portraits ), narrator Stefan Hollander is a compulsive collector, entranced with "relics" of bygone ladies. He treasures a blue-bound 1939 journal kept by Millicent Rappaport, a novelist who was enraptured by glamorous 1930s actress/aviatrix Molly Lamanna. Stefan dreams about Molly, acquires her films and memorabilia and wonders why she named one Luis deSaumerez--now vanished--as her beneficiary. By the time this mystery is cleared, the reader has long ago lost interest in characters who are not only deceased but lifeless. Chapters shuttle between Stefan's present-day account and Millicent's journal, advancing the idea that reality is elusive and we substitute mirrors and fetishes, words and myths. Layers of decorative verbal embroidery enfold the tale's vacuous core. Stefan at last tires of Molly and Millicent, admitting that his interest in them "dwindled" and Molly was "too abstract," aptly pinpointing the novel's deficiencies.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This first novel by an expatriate U.S. poet ( Voyaging Portraits: Poems , New Directions, 1988) is very engaging. The settings are Hollywood and France in 1939, seen retrospectively through the eyes of screenwriter Millicent Rappaport. Her journal, which comprises half the novel, has recently resurfaced, bought by narrator Stefan Hollander, who collects memorabilia. Both Millicent's journal and Stefan's collection focus on the elusive Molly Lamanna, former Hollywood starlet and amateur aviator who has literally flown, memoryless, out of another life. Does this sound like one of those Russian dolls that opens to reveal yet another and another? It is indeed mysterious and convoluted in its subplots: there's Vivien Voigt, the "white negative" of Molly, her stand-in and double; Italian twins Lea and Amadeo; and Luis deSaumarez, a crazed wanderer running from a series of fires set across America. Sorbin succeeds here with a real mood piece, both intricate and absorbing, that reminds one with its sensual focus of Lawrence Durrell. Recommended for most public libraries.
- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
