Erstwhile porn star April Berger, shipwrecked on the Alaskan island of Lo, believes she has found a secret paradise: the land is cheap, the people seem nice and it beats L.A. for rural authenticity. What the heroine of this aggressively offbeat first novel doesn't know is that Lo is home to a crude, incestuous and downright nasty group of fishermen and their families. Comely, abused island native Nadine (in love with Yann, the best of the fishermen, but obsessed with April), Yann (in love with April's voluminous breasts, but obsessed with Nadine) and April form an uncomfortable love triangle, which ends, predictably, in an explosion of the violence permeating the book. French translator Spitzer's inspiration was an obscure film script by Louis-Ferdinand C?line, but C?line's dark, obscene and savagely humorous style is difficult to imitate; Spitzer resorts to raw depictions of dissolute, sadistic characters who turn to unnecessary murder, illicit sex and excessive vengeance to distract them from their misery. Writing to shock, he delights in detailed descriptions of raging libidos and uncensored violence, but the frisson he works to generate wears off early and fails to disguise the familiarity of the plot and characters. Spitzer's unfocused, intermittently inspired satirical voice outshines his material and goes far toward filling out an otherwise flimsy story, but even impressively energetic prose is unable to redeem this ill-conceived novel. (July)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This novel is based on Spitzer's translation of a film sketch by C line. He moved the setting from an island off Brittany to one in the Bering Strait and expanded the story to create one of the most grotesque, chilling tales in modern literature. The men "fish fight and fuck and the women work in the cannery wearing slate gray smocks splattered with the blood of creatures...processed into dog food." Inbred survivors of a prison ship blown astray, these sorry folk find their jobs boring but deadly and their lives routine but utterly depraved. Rape, incest, alcoholism, and crack addiction are common. When a glamorous porn star washes up after a storm, the spiteful, manipulative Mother Kralik directs a vicious cycle of lust, blood lust, and intolerance. The story's extreme darkness is almost transcended by Spitzer's powerful, poetic language and ironic humor. Strongly recommended for strong-stomached readers in medium to large academic and public libraries. Jim Dwyer, California State Univ., Chico
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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