by William Golding
"We're all mad, the whole damned race. We're wrapped in illusions, delusions, confusions about the penetrability of partitions, we're all mad and in solitary confinement." That's how one of the characters sums up life near the end of this dense novel by the author of Lord of the Flies, the allegory about boys who survive a plane crash and create a vicious society on an island. This book is not so easily summed up. The main character is a young, burned and disfigured survivor of the London blitz. Because he has no family, he is placed in school where he becomes involved with a homosexual teacher. He then works in a bookshop and meets beautiful twin daughters who grow up to become terrorists. The writing often is obscure, but the somber mood and occasional bright flashes of insight repay the dedication the book requires. (Farrar, Straus, Giroux, $10.95)
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