Wisteria Cottage (Valancourt 20th Century Classics)

As another reader has rated this item (as a one-star), this novel is NOT for "whodunnit", mystery lovers. If you are looking for a twisted 'plot' to entertain, this will not satisfy your desires. A brilliantly written existential portrait of the despair spawned by modernity's ills (the setting is an isolated beach cottage amongst the dunes, a mythical place only a train away from the hub of NYC, the obsession that drives the poet-protagonist is one of modernity's sins (i.e., the obscenity of flesh, the empowerment of women, the plight of social 'classes', and so on)--Wisteria Cottage gripped me in its intensity. Dark, melodious (the flow of the words is poignantly poetic), and compelling, Robert Coates' depth of access to a fascinating (killer) consciousness is frightening in its realistic detachment and unnerving sensical-ness. The protagonist poet-killer is a man of unstable moods and erratic constitution (he talks to himself, rapes, kills, is in psychiatry's terms a 'sociopath'), and most of the novel is written in his voice--in the third-person. Although we are brought into his world of sympathies, we are kept at a distance (by the simple fact that the third person does not allow as much intimacy as first person narratives). And, at times the flow is interrupted by excerpts from 'Psychiatrist's reports' of future studies into this criminal mind. These and other bits, written from the perspective of other characters, serve to make salient the protagonists' dark moods and their unexplainable nature (i.e., the 'organic' nature of the moods, influenced in content by themes inspired by modernity). I could not put Wisteria Cottage, finished it very quickly--brilliant (and dark, creepy, moody, existentially scary).

I read this book because I found the author's book *The Eater of Darkness* brilliant. *Wisteria Cottage* is a darker tale, distressing, but superbly realized. It is a psychopath's story, from his distorted point of view, and disturbing in every way. Read this book; you will learn something from it --- about the hazards of life and the art of writing. The writing is superb. If you don't like it, blame me.