The American Woman in the Chinese Hat: A Novel [Hardcover]

Carole Maso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1994

Carole Maso's stunning, erotic fourth novel chronicles the dark, irresistible adventures of an American writer named Catherine who has come to France to live. Set into motion by a single act of abandonmentCatherine's lover of ten years has left hershe falls deeper and deeper into an irretrievable madness.

With passionate abandon and detachment Catherine pursues her own destruction. Forcing the boundaries of identity and the limits of her eroticism, she enters a series of blinding sexual encounters with a poet, a fascist, a young Arlesian woman, a fireman, and three thieves. Eerily she splits herself in two so that she is both the one who watches and the one who is watched, creator and creation, author and character, as she observes herself from afar. "And I would like to help her," the one who watches says, "but I can't."

This mesmerizing drama of sex, betrayal, and dissolution is played out against the dazzling backdrop of the beautiful, indifferent Cote d'Azur in summer. Written in a dwindling lexicon with a simple, warped musicality, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat is a dark, uncompromising, seductive work of art.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Catherine, 33, beautiful and vibrant, bisexual (though preferring women) and passionately driven as a writer, drifts through the bars and bedrooms of Vence on the French Riviera seeking sexual partners. Maso's ( Ghost Dance ) enchanting fourth novel unfolds in a fragmented, poetic prose that is exciting, delicious and lucid. Jilted by Lola, her American lover, Catherine tries to quell her emotional turmoil with a chain of lovers, finally connecting with Lucien, a sweet longhaired youth she picks up at the village fountain. Under the glaring Cote d'Azur sun, Catherine feels herself ignited by a manic misery she compulsively funnels into her writing. Language is the shape of her pain and her desire: she continually inscribes her life as she experiences it, reinventing herself in the pages of her notebook. Maso remains in control of her preoccupation with the writerly act, e.g., splitting Catherine's identity into third- and first-person narratives, maintaining one voice that is mischievously aloof. Paradoxically, the author presents the novel as a finished artifact, yet creates an illusion of improvisation as Catherine suffers and scribbles. The fountain forms a recurrent motif, along with images of birds and radiant light, until the novel's striking finale.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

For bisexual novelist Catherine, love is "small protection against the overwhelming desire to suffer." In fact, what Catherine calls love is actually the sort of sexual obsessiveness that has killed her brother, poisoned her relationships, and made Michael Jackson's show in Nice le concert de l'annee. When the American woman whom she has abused for years can't take it anymore, Catherine throws herself into a series of affairs despite the obvious threats of AIDS and her ever-deepening melancholy. Her only positive relationship is an unconsummated one with Sylvia, a fascinating older woman who has known some of the literary and intellectual giants of the 20th century. Like Maso's Ava ( LJ 4/1/93), this book may shock the genteel reader, but others will be enthralled. Highly recommended for all public and academic libraries.
- Jim Dwyer, California State Univ. Lib., Chico
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 201 pages
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Pr; 1st edition (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564780457
• ISBN-13: 978-1564780454
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,461,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic Masterpiece, December 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The American Woman in the Chinese Hat: A Novel (Hardcover)

A definite must for any fan of lyrical prose. The shifting narration is a daring change of pace from the traditional novel format. Intensely moving.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electricity of desire, March 20, 2001

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Woman in the Chinese Hat (Paperback)

Catherine travels to France to write and to mourn her brother. Her lover Lola tells her she's now seeing someone else (briefly), and this sends Catherine into a depression. She sleeps indiscriminately with both women and men she encounters, acting out her detachment and self-destruction. She ends with Lucien, a man who's her equal in beauty, intelligence, and solitude. Their doomed affair must inevitably end, and each must regain their life back, hopefully before they destroy each other. Maso's style is lyrical and erotic, and is rooted in Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf. It's a novel of longing, of desire, of France, and of the world of writers. It also reminded me somewhat of Violette Leduc's work, where it's an honest, unflinching writing that does not shy away from personal pain. Quite electrifying.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sad mercurial gem., October 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The American Woman in the Chinese Hat: A Novel (Hardcover)

The setting is the south of France and the impending trajectory of desire and sadness is a record of the protagonist's breakdown. Written in a sparse lyrical narrative, this surrealistic novel of betrayal is also a search for meaning in a world where that possibility seems almost futile.