The Blood Oranges: A Novel

About this book

No synopsis or comparison can convey the novels lyric comedy or indeed its sinister powersinister because of the strength of will Cyril exerts over his wife his mistress his wifes reluctant lover; lyric since he is also a sex-singer" in the land where music is the food of love. "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 Hawkess widely acclaimed novel The Blood Oranges is boldly asserted by its narrator Cyril the archetypal multisexualist. Likening himself to a white bull on Loves tapestry he pursues his romantic vision in a primitive Mediterranean landscape. There two couplesCyril and Fiona Hugh and Catherinemingle their loves in an "lllyria" that brings to mind the equally timeless countryside of Shakespeares Twelfth Night.