Suddenly, a Mortal Splendor

The lives of two Hungarian half-brothers are skewed by parental folly. One becomes a South American strongman, the other a mystic.

Art succumbs to pretension in Blackburn's new novel, which traces the odyssey of Hungarian teen Pal Szabo, who flees his country after the failed 1956 revolt. In Austria, Pal meets a wealthy Briton, Grace, who informally adopts him and brings him to London. There, she introduces him to her estranged husband, muddle-headed pacifist John Woolpack III, and to Woolpack's lover, Bluejean, a teenaged girl. Pal runs away with Bluejean and marries her; together, they raise her child by Woolpack. In 1973, Pal, on leave from his current job in the U.S. Army, comes home to learn that Bluejean has gone off to a South American country named Pacifica (clearly modeled on Chile at the time of the Pinochet coup). Pal follows his wife only to find her body in a mine owned by Woolpack's trust, which Grace controls; further complications ensue. Blackburn (The Cold War of Kitty Pentecost) seems hell-bent on encapsulating 20 years of history here, awkwardly introducing key, ethnically diverse characters (Pal's Navajo friend, Virgil, as well as his new Chilean paramour) late in the narrative. The writing is undisciplined, jamming together fresh insights and soap-operatic plot devices, and while some may laud Blackburn's politically correct sentiments, even they will wince at the consequent cliches, like Virgil's statement that ``Ways of the white man have often been bitter on my tongue.''

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Two friends, both orphaned in Hungary before the 1956 revolution, are affected differently by their years in a state-run orphanage. Freed, they follow separate paths, Gunter to South America and Paul, the focus of the novel, to England, the United States, and, finally, a reunion with Gunter. The two men squabble over the provisions of an inheritance, and Paul's daughter is eventually kidnapped. The search for her involves the convoluted lives of those whom Paul has met over the intervening years: Grace Woolpack, surrogate mother and lover; Jack, Grace's husband and source of her wealth; Bluejean, Jack's young mistress and later Paul's wife; and Christina, Bluejean's daughter, whom Paul loves as his own. Money, power, and the games people play are portrayed in this picaresque examination of one man and the survival of his innocence and ideals in a ruthless and confusing world. Blackburn (English, Colorado State Univ.) is a founding editor of the Writers Forum. Recommended for larger public and academic fiction collections.
M.J. Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.