From Publishers Weekly
This awkwardly written first novel explores the war between the sexes, heightened by vivid scenes of domestic violence. Justine, a young American ballet dancer, leaves her touring company and decamps to Oxford to be near Roy, her former philosopher professor. She is a sex junkie, turned on by Roy's sadistic violence. When Justine finds she is pregnant, they marry, Addie, their son, becomes the pivotal focus of their relationship. After Roy takes a position at Harvard, they move back to the States, but by then their marriage has further deteriorated. On vacation in the Caribbean, Justine falls in love with Moses, a simple local man for whom she abandons her family. Later, Justine, again pregnant, returns to Roy--whose eyes are filled with "passionate tenderness" at her homecoming, sparing the reader from a continuation of their emotionally charged saga.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
A graphic but surprisingly moving first novel... Andreacchi never really explains Justine's obsession with either Roy or rough sex, but the power and poetry of her writing make them believable. An unusual and sometimes potent debut.
--Kirkus Reviews
