in review
fLooking for Mr. Goodbar
Liberation fable
well-written
rShardik’
Adams' rabbits
beat his bears
fCurtain
Poirot, Christie
finish with style
By Mary Beth Allen
Judith Rossner’s “Looking for
Mr. Goodbar" is finally available in
paperback, and the publication of
this inexpensive edition is a good
excuse for yet another review of
this book. It was serialized last fall
in Cosmopolitan magazine, but in
spite of that is still deserves a seri
ous examination.
As in most modern novels, the
book does not have an easily exp
lainable plot. It would be more
exact to say it is about a series of
events in the life of the heroine,
Theresa Dunn.
During her childhood, Theresa
is resentful about her poor health
resulting from a bout with polio
and jealous of her two sisters’
popularity. After graduation, she
persuades her parents to let her
attend college.
Theresa lands a teaching job
and finds her first real moments of
contentment with her young stu
dents. During her second year of
teaching, she takes the plunge
and moves out of her parent's
house. Her first apartment is
below that of her sister Katherine
and her lawyer husband Brooks.
They try to integrate Terry into
their self-consciously with-it lifes
tyle, which consists of grass,
health food, Fire-lsland-in-the
summer and open marriage.
But when Theresa becomes in
volved with a kind, stable man
By uan Hays
Richard Adams’ first book,
"Watership Down,” created
something of a sensation in both
England and America. Conse
quently, his second book was
greeted with a kind of precon
ceived expectation of more of the
same. Many readers were disap
pointed, for "Shardik" does not in
the least resemble “Watership
Down."
A persistant misconception has
clung to “Shardik" since Simon
and Schuster published it in hard
back in 1975. The recent paper
back reissue has reawakened that
misconception in those who have
not read the book. “Shardik” is not
about a bear. It is certainly true
that a bear figures prominently in
the story, might even be called a
central motivation to character ac
tion. But the bear is not a charac
ter as such ... there is none of the
anthropomorphic in his presenta
tion. “Watership Down” was an al
legory using humanized rabbits as
central characters (humanized in
the sense that they spoke, and
displayed reason); “Shardik’s”
characters are human beings ...
and this is one of the weaknesses
By Anne Kern
Never mourn the death of a
great person; simply rejoice in his
accomplishments and relive his
greatest moments.
This must have been the senti
ment of the late Dame Agatha
Christie toward her famous Bel
gian detective, Hercule Poirot,
whom she helped begin and end
his career allowing him many
achievements in between.
Curtain marks the end of an
eventful life for Poirot. Unfortu
nately for Dame Agatha’s devoted
readers it also marked the end of
her brilliant career.
In this two-in-one volume,
Poirot is shown arriving and leav
ing England. Throughout both
stories Poirot, with the help of his
ever faithful side-kick Captain
Hastings, lets his superb "grey
cells” ponder, puzzle and eventu
ally ferret out the murderers who
dare to challenge him.
named James Morrisey whorr
she has met through one of the
teachers a; school, her carefully
constructed life begins to lose its
order. She starts out being irri
tated by James’ decency bu
eventually grows to love him — 01
come as dose as she can to lovinc
someone. She tells him of her fre
quent pick-ups and he is hurt bu
his feelings for her are un
changed. He gives her a month tc
decide to marry him and refuses tc
see her until she decides. De
pressed and lonely, Theresa de
cides to reaffirm what she thinks is
her freedom and independence,
and she makes her last trip to the
sinqles mecca called Mr. Good
bar.
Rossner manages to convey
perfectly Terry’s attitude towards
her bar pick-ups. She feels sexu
ally liberated, not whorish — aftei
all, she is a teacher. She wraps
her profession around her like a
blanket to protect herself from the
contempt of the men she seduces
And the knowledge that only he
one-night lovers can sexually
satisfy her gives her strength t<
resist an emotional commitmen
to James.
A curious mixture of stark, a
most cold, prose and vivid deta
characterizes Rossner's style
She writes with detachment, al
most as if she were a reporte
of the novel. Adams' rabbits wen
more believable, more compel
ling, more interesting than hi
human beings were.
"Shardik" is essentially a heroi
fantasy. It employs the device c
an invented past, with an uncei
tain setting (complete with a map
and with just enough hints of fami
iar things to lend the setting crt
dence. Yet ultimately the boo
fails, both as allegory and as ac
venture story. It is far too long, an
Adams never seems to quite d€
cide what he is writing about.
At first, "Shardik" seems to s«
out to elaborate on a devic
Adams used to great success i
‘ Watership Down" , the creation (
a religion. The inhabitants of G
telga (one of the more pronounc
ble of Adams invented name;
encounter a gigantic bear, whor
they believe to be the personifies
tion of Lord Shardik, the Power c
God. The cult of the bear is exf
lored to some depth (though rx
quite enough to make it real!
vital)... and then the book turn
into an uneasy tale of the betray;
of God, the visitation of punisf
ment, and the horrors of a worl
“The Mysterious Affair a
Styles” is Poirot's first case and h
performs beautifully, though Hasi
ings hardly thinks so. Poirot is
World War I refugee to whom th
mistress of Styles Court, the sut
sequent victim, extends her hosp
tality.
In “Curtain" Poirot is on the tra
of a much more fiendish and pre
lific murderer. The mysterious “X
(as Poirot dubs the murderer) ha
already claimed five victims bt
remains virtually untouchable.
Poirot knows “X” is about t
strike again but doesn't know wh<
the victim or the "murderer" wi
be.
While Poirot may be bri Ilian
using his "grey cells" for deduc
tion, Hastings is his familar bung!
ing self using his emotions for hi
intelligence. Poirot gently chide
his friend to give up aubum-haire<
“les femmes," and keep his eye
and ears open as they “hunt tc
gether.”
covering the events in i erry s me.
However, she doesn't achieve
total objectivity, and it is hard to tell
whether Rossner is sympathetic
towards Terry or whether the book
is one, long fable — complete with
a moral. One could conclude the
book is a combination of both.
Terry, even before her death, is a
victim — a victim of an era and a
city where lasting relationships
and living friendships are replaced
by less bothersome, casual, sex
ual encounters. In a mobile,
high-powered society, sexual
gratification becomes an insula
tion against the vulnerability that
emotional commitment invites. To
Terry, like most of the people she
meets in Mr. Goodbar (which is
supposed to be just that — a
"good,'' safe, bar) sexuality be
comes an end in itself — and it is
an end of no joy and little true
eroticism.
‘‘Goodbar" is alternately de
pressing and entertaining. It is
sometimes almost painfully realis
r tic and often sexually graphic. But
f it is not a sensational thriller; it is a
, tragic story, although not a
l tragedy in the literary sense of the
word. Rossoer s book succeeds,
even though it may be up to the
individual reader what it succeeds
1 at. Goodbar" is engrossing and
well-written, and worth reading if
for no other reason than to try and
r find out why it is so popular.
} which has lost its sanctity. All of
- this is too much for a single book.
> Adams loses the thread about
half-way through; the forward
c thrust of action and meaning sim
[f ply stops. Things still happen, but
we do not perceive any real sig
t nificance in them.
. Adams tries very hard to be
K mystical, but he never succeeds in
k infusing the reader with a feeling
. of awe Shardik remains simply a
j bear, and the people around him
- literary puppets. Part of the
reason for this is that the entire
,t action of the book, supposedly on
3 a grand scale, takes place in an
i area which can be covered on foot
•f in three or four days ... an area
- which, nonetheless, contains an
■ amazing geographical variation,
’) an astounding number of peoples
i who have never encountered
each other, and places mysteri
,f ous to all concerned
Adams has attempted some
»t thing very ambitious, and there
y are stirring passages in the
s book . . particularly his descrip
»l tions of nature. But the vision is
i- clouded, and the results unsatis
3 factory.
t Dame Agatha has once again
3 created the most believable de
tective team since Sherlock
j Holmes and Dr. Watson. Her writ
j ing, though some criticize it as
"school girl English," fits her old
fashioned characters well.
What must be remembered
il when reading a Christie book is
that the story is set in post-World
War I England (or Europe). A
s late-20th century American may
t find language stilted that some
one in the Twenties would have
3 recognized as normal.
3 ‘‘Curtain’' may be a marvelously
II written story, but it is sad that no
more works like it will follow
(though rumor has it that one final
book has yet to be published, the
last of Miss Jane Marple).
> Those of us who knew and
5 loved Dame Agatha and her
J characters mourn her death as a
3 literary tragedy. But her stories will
always be around for us to re
enjoy.