Dreaming of Dead People

In this 1979 novel, English writer Belben (The Limit) takes a brief but unforgettable foray into the mind of an isolated middle-aged woman who describes herself as “an unfortunate ghost.” Lavinia, who lives alone in the countryside, is occasionally embittered (“I am shrivelling... I am less, I sense, than the air I displace with my body”) and often full of longing for companionship and acceptance. Belben’s matter-of-fact style is heightened by Lavinia’s intense corporeal descriptions, such as a scene involving a badly butchered pig in an abattoir. The frank and explicit material extends to the narrator’s frustrated sexual desire, which is described in terms that are less erotic than carnal (“I feel nothing else but cunt, twitching like the nose of a rabbit... the rest is dead”), and which often swerve into clever digressions (“In medieval vernacular cockle was a name for cunt. And pilgrims wore cockleshells in their hats to show the world that cunts were above them, out of sight and mind, and well away from their winkles”). Lavinia also manages to “project [her] consciousness” into that of another outsider, Robin Hood, exploring his romantic life and leavening her depictions of life’s cruelty with playful scenes of Sherwood Forest. Readers will be glad to discover this striking narrative. (Aug.)