FACING THE TANK

When Evan, an American professor, arrives in the charming, seemingly staid English middle-class community of Barrowcester, he discovers an excess of perversion and the unconventional

The British author of Kansas in August , The Aerodynamics of Pork and Ease (all published by age 25) has in this novel carried off yet another ridiculously crazy tour de force. The village of Barrowcester and its inhabitants are the launching point for the narrative's bizarre trajectory. An American professor known for his book about hell is now researching heaven in the Cathedral, where, coincidentally, the remains of the local saint are to be disinterred in order to repair a crumbling foundation wall. The bishop is having "Doubts," the landlady's daughter has been knocked up by a Cardinal, another villager is doing her best to summon the Devil, a previously homosexual dress designer with a positive AIDS test is marrying a black American doctor, a schoolboy thinks he has fathered a litter of puppies, and someone--or something--giant rats? a feral child?--is loose in the village. And that's not the half of it. The plot ricochets between the dozens of richly drawn characters, and one of the many reasons to devour this novel at one go is that it will make it easier to keep track. Some other reasons are that this book is a delightful read, albeit a strange one, and that if started at bedtime, pages will be turning inevitably into the wee small hours. If E. F. Benson, Iris Murdoch and Fay Weldon were to produce a story in some mad collusion, the result might be something like this.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Visiting the English village of Barrowcester to research material for his book on the supernatural, middle-aged American scholar Evan Kirby finds the place and its people wistfully odd. Dawn seeks the devil. The Bishop hunts true doubt. His mother is a medium. Meanwhile, Evan is falling for Madeleine, newly pregnant with the Cardinal's child. The result is a witty novel of manners that gently satirizes the travails of the village and its people. Its tone is even, its humor subtle, and its transitions from scene to scene smooth, so that our sense of place and story is exact. Highly recommended.
- Joseph M. Levandoski, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.