Word: stacton
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PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by David Stacton. 381 pages. Putnam...
...model of the world, with the roof taken off and the streets torn up," is Author Stacton's description of a Spanish army bivouac into which a couple of his characters have strayed during the Thirty Years War. Stacton could also be describing his own novel abovit that war. In that camp, the civilians-stable boys, prostitutes, grooms, bakers, wine sellers, nurses, wives, peddlers, moneylenders, cardsharps, children, thieves, thugs, priests, a company of traveling actors-outnumber the soldiers by as much as eight to one, and the same wild and brutalized rabble roils through the pages of the book...
Splendor & Slime. David Stacton has been brilliant and exasperating before this. In a dozen earlier novels he has illuminated dark corners of everything from ancient Egypt to feudal Japan, from the gory Renaissance legend of the Duchess of Amalfi to the aftermath of the assassination of Lincoln. In each, over the violent pulse and slash of ancient action broods a satanic modern intelligence. He is unique for the wit and sinewy pertinence of his asides. And until now, his story lines have also been clearly muscled, if often knotty...
...ACQUAINTANCE, by David Stacton. A light, worldly novel that tells of old friendship and young love on the Riviera, as it might have been told by Bemelmans with added monologues by Oscar Wilde...
Even in these one-worldly days of cultural colonies and jet-settlers, most U.S. authors trying to depict European sophistication seem indefinably out of their league, like children sashaying around in grown-up shoes. Not so David Stacton, who here recounts with relish and delight a nostalgic encounter between two Old World celebrities at an international film festival. Leading man is Charlie, a writer rich but long past his prime, an exquisite wit, mildly fond of young men, though he has been married four times. With his latest boy in tow, Charlie encounters an old cinemactress friend...