Word: kosinski
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FICTION: Endless Love, Scott Spencer Passion Play, Jerzy Kosinski Shikasta, Doris Lessing The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer The Ghost Writer, Philip Roth The Green Ripper, John D. MacDonald Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner, edited by Joseph Blotner
Passion Play, however, can not claim an untarnished victory. Love never surfaces in this, or for that matter, any other Kosinski novel. Instead he confronts us with heroes like Fabian--men who want only to possess females; searing orgasm and the fulfillment of sexual fantasy develop as the closest bonds between humans...
...depravity of this attitude can't be dismissed as male chauvinism, however. Rather, it reflects Kosinski's commentary on the modern trend of individualism. We tend increasingly to draw away from others, to turn our backs on the world, on the country, on friends, and on family; ultimately, we will consider only ourselves...
...mount a pony and fly victorious across a manicured field, without all this Fabian's life need not continue. Hence, the books Fabian has written (he too is an author) warn of the dangers of horsemanship--there's no blithe extolling of the joys of riding here. Indeed, Kosinski--Fabian's creator--himself carries poison with him at all times so he can abruptly kill himself should he suffer such a crippling accident...
Passion Play is Kosinski's seventh novel and we see more method to the madness of human grotesquerie that has always decorated his pages. Kosinski writes about the dark shadow self--our violent urges, homosexual lusts, transexual curiosities, murderous inclinations, heterosexual explorations, and, inevitably, our intense fear of surrendering control of the flesh and bones that give us life. None of these themes is new to Kosinski; what's new is the lucidity and restraint with which they're developed. Passion Play is his best novel...