Subtraction

Paige Deveaux, poet and Harvard professor, trails her husband Raf to a seedy bar in Houston where she enlists the aid of Raymond and Pru, a stripper, to help sober him up, but the relationship of this foursome takes on a dangerous inevitability

This is a stylish, but ultimately unsatisfying love story of modern marriage. Paige is a published poet, a Harvard professor on leave with a grant. She's chasing after husband Raf, a drinker and womanizer who's escaped from her. She finds him on the rough side of Houston with old buddy Raymond, but the reunion does not lead to clear sailing in the marriage. There is no real resolution of the difficulties, and although the story is littered with offbeat characters and much self-analysis, it never quite jells as a novel. The main characters are all attractive, but neither likable nor interesting. For larger modern fiction collections.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.