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Eden motel ; and To love Flaminio

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From Shakespeare's plays to Graham Greene's entertainments, literature has abounded with the Lowlife. Neither hero nor antihero, these braggarts, petty villains, con men, and go-betweens are the essential motivators in almost any work of fiction. Where would Othello be without lago? Probably still living in boring romantic bliss with Desdemona.

Despite their lowly status, such knaves have proven oddly inspiring to writers. Dan Jacobson's "Rape of Tamar" and Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" are but two of contemporary fiction's brilliant works of art in which the supporting character is given his chance to tell the tale.

Now it's Flaminio's turn. Momentarily excused from the needs of an Eric Ambler thriller, Flaminio is on his own in Pondicherry, India. Among other things, he is in futile pursuit of Deborah who is herself as futilely pursuing Tom who would rather be left alone.

It is not easy for anyone, not even Flaminio himself, to love a Flaminio.

Deborah observes that "it's easy to love someone strong and loveable. But to be really saved, we have to be able to love the slimiest creatures on the earth, someone like Flaminio."

Deborah certainly needs saving. She is in the middle of a "life crisis" and has a strong fascination for Flaminio's bottle of sleeping pills.

As to Flaminio, his life is and always will be in the middle of a crisis. He aspires to some sort of greatness, perhaps the same heroic heights as those achieved by those heroes for whom he and his kind have always provided the means. But can a deus-ex-machina incarnate actually plan his own destiny?

To Love Flaminio is a funny, moving short novel by Nina Galen. In this third novel, she may have done for braggarts and scoundrels what John Gardner's Grendel did for monsters.