Thanatos for TwonJohn Hawkes: The Passion Artist;nHarper & Row; New York.nRalph de Toledano: Devil TakenHim; G. P. Putnam’s Sons; NewnYork.nby Joseph SchwartznThe fictional world of John Hawkesnis absurd for two reasons, each affectingnhis perception of reality. First,nit contains no pattern of cause and effect.nWhat one gets instead is the flow of sensationsnand eccentric spatial juxtapositions,nestablishing the indefiniteness ofnnowhere even when, apparently, we arensupposed to be somewhere. Second, andnmore important, the enduring valuesnupon which we presume life can benunderstood—order, justice, divinity—nare replaced by disorder, lawlessness,nnothingness. Each of his narratives embracesnthe combination of Thanatos andnEros which so fascinates him. A characternin a previous novel remarked that:n”Darkness can come to Ilyria.” It is ancrucial statement for all of Hawkes’snwork. What our commdhly shared experiencesnand values are unjustly contrastednwith is some Elysium, unarticulatednby Hawkes and hence never subjectnto examination. It remains instead antacit personal dream of what might be,nsomething as simple-minded as uninhibitednerotic love. Although it is formallynunspecified, this Elysium remainsnthe standard which moves him to becomenthe “connoisseur of deformity,”nthat irony which reveals the emptinessnof our best hopes. It draws him naturallyntoward what he calls “the modes of incongruity,”nthe principal method of hisnfiction.nThe Passion Artist, the most Kafkalikenof his novels, is a dark work whichnDr. Schwartz is a frequent contributornto these pages.nmakes yet another journey into thenumbra of death. Konrad Vost, a fiftyishnpharmacy clerk, inhabits a middle-sizednEuropean city distinguished only by itsndrab uniformity. Precision and correctnessnare his two distinguishing characteristics.nHis life is bounded by womennin “the garden in which he was cultivated.”nThe cultivators are Eva thenimprisoned mother, Claire the dead wife,nand Mirabelle the daughter, a child innhis eyes, otherwise a prostitute. Hisnmother murdered his father and deprivednhim of her maternal love. Henloved and condemned her. His wife wasnfaithless to him. He grieves obsessivelynfor her. His daughter, a schoolgirl, de-ndream state in which hallucinations arenmore telling than real events. It is anfictive world in which his frustratednimagination releases his inner self. Thenfreedom of nature overwhelms the categorizingnmind.nWhat is one to make of his symbolicnadventures.” It is difficult to say. Doesnthe male discover that he has madenfemales his victims and come to annawareness of their individuality, evennsuperiority.” I suspect Hawkes wantsnus to read the novel that way. On thenother hand, readers like myself, whonaccept history and the traditional valuesnof Western civilization, will be puzzled,nand finally consider the novel antifemi-n•’. . . st-(.tinn.s of I’r.’c Pciss’iiin .-rlhl ari- amoiif; thi- niosf poijjTiaru and tiuist (KiMi-ifirlnin llawkfi’s mnv t’XU’nsivc ami rruly tla.ssital ni’in^rf . . . lo conii’ iiimn lotun rihs.niindt-rKroimil rivi-r.”;. cxiTfrnt-nll”n— The iew licpiih/icn”. . . hijjhly ri-coninii’iidt’d for s(i|ihisli(ati’d ailli’ctionsof tonlcmporarv fiction.”n— Lihriiry Joiirftalnliberately offends him with her sexualnlaxity. His life is measured by the regularitynof his visits to the exterior ofnthe prison, the cemetery and the school,n”a traveler in a small world.” He isncomfortable with the boredom and securitynof regular patterns which arenindifferent and meaningless without thenthreat of “unwanted change.” Thisnrigidly ordered world, the product ofnmind, not of nature, is upset when he isnseduced by his daughter’s classmate,ncreating in him violent sensations fornwhich he has no prepared response.n”Natural” feelings are foreign to him.nShortly thereafter the women in thenprison, La Violaine, riot, again an orderlynworld upset, and Vost volunteers tonhelp the guards re-establish order. Anvictim of the battle, he awakens in thenhospital. Eva, Claire and Mirabelle havenescaped the categories into which henhad fixed them. The rest of the novelnseems to take place in some kind ofnnnnist; the protagonist discovers that henhas been repeatedly betrayed and dehumanizednby women. However, in ordernto get to either of these choices (ornothers, perhaps), it is necessary to examinenthe frame image of the novel and tondetermine the character of Vost’s mindnand imagination.nThe frame image of the novel wouldnseem to indicate that any pattern leadsnto the discovery of nothingness. AfternClaire’s funeral, Vost returns to then”empty” church, discovers finitude, then”brutally silvered fist of death.” Withnan “impossible clarity of sight,” he findsnthe “answer”: “The obverse of the tombnof Christ.” The obverse is the side turnedntoward the observer, the side bearingnthe main design. The root meaning ofn”obverse” is also helpful, “for always.”nThe Cross and the Tomb are symbols ofndeath. For Vost, “the irony of ordernexisting only in desolation and discomfortnwas a satisfaction beyond imagin-n••••IBBH15nJuly/Au^Uj^t 1080n