bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan) (04/16/85)
The first I heard of Renata Adler was in a review of her second novel, "Pitch Dark," which the reviewer compared unfavorably to her first novel, "Speedboat." I forgot what the reviewer said. It was a while ago and I didn't read the entire review. (I never do--most book reviews are too long.) A few months later I bought a paperback copy of each. I was sort of curious, and I was also attracted by the book cover design. (I tend to judge books by their covers, having had a lot of art training). Anyway, "Speedboat" is only a novel insofar as it is 'novel-length' and is divided up into chapters. On closer inspection, the chapters are unrelated and the paragraphs within each chapter are unrelated vignettes. I liked the format a lot. I like Adler's style a lot. I liked this book a lot. Structurally, "Pitch Dark" is closer to a novel, for what that's worth. Her style is much the same, but in "Pitch Dark" it seemed like the constraints of relying on structural devices like 'plot' muted her style and diminished the force of her writing. The plot wasn't much at that, either. It was more like a half-hearted concession toward literary formalism. It's still a decent book, though. -- Bob Kaplan "Our love burns like fire, then turns to ashes."