Джон Хоукс: The Blood Oranges

«Rich, evocative, highly original piece of fiction. It gilds contemporary American literature with real, not synthetic, gold.» — Anthony Burgess

«Need I insist that the only enemy of the mature marriage is monogamy? That anything less than sexual multiplicity. . is naive? That our sexual selves are merely idylers in a vast wood?» Thus the central theme of John Hawkes s widely acclaimed novel The Blood Oranges is boldly asserted by its narrator, Cyril, the archetypal multisexualist. Likening himself to a white bull on Love s tapestry, he pursues his romantic vision in a primitive Mediterranean landscape. There two couples — Cyril and Fiona, Hugh and Catherine — mingle their loves in an «lllyria» that brings to mind the equally timeless countryside of Shakespeare s Twelfth Night.

Yet no synopsis or comparison can convey the novel s lyric comedy or, indeed, its sinister power — sinister because of the strength of will Cyril exerts over his wife, his mistress, his wife s reluctant lover, lyric, since he is also a “sex-singer» in the land where music is the food of love.