Nocturne

Set in a tiny Italian village, this novel by the British-born author of Joanna is about as flavorful and authentic as a dish of overcooked spaghetti. Before WW II works its depredations, the village is a world unto itself, its borders breached rarely--but for the appearance of Maestro Rossi's traveling fun fair. There the noble peasant's son, Alessandro Mezzanotte, conceives an immortal passion for mysterious and beautiful Valentina, the daughter of the ringmaster. "Sometimes he would travel all day and all night just to spend an hour with her. His brothers said he was mad. . . . How could they know that the inside of Valentina's mouth was the elixir of life." Throw in some subplots involving tragic village women, tragicomic village men; stir in a helping of the meaninglessness of war and warfare; imply some symbols about blindness and insight; and presto --what results is an imitation of the great postwar Italian novelists. At times St. Aubin de Teran's prose reaches toward bathos; never does it echo with the ring of simple truth. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.