How disappointing to discover a group of not very voluble, exceedingly businesslike men and women, without a savage or a dope-fiend or a suicidal drunk among them. Alison Lurie's fourth novel is set in a New England artist' colony called Illyria. Her colonists are ordinary people who happen to write and paint. Its is a garden where the innocents play self-congratulatory games.
Gardens require serpents the way radicals require cops.
A pubescent tease temporarily between Dartmouth boys, Anna May slums a week among the artists, basting her mindless young body beside the swimming pool, causing ripples in the libidinal pool. Anna May performs as a cam, introducing motion to all the contiguous parts of the story. Kenneth is moved by this betrayal to admit that, all along, he was a homosexual and didn't like Janet's short stories. Obviously, Alison Lurie isn't Janet Belle Smith. But Alison Lurie is one of our most talented and intelligent novelists.