books Ft) This book has a lot of growing up to do NDREA DE CARLO is, if you can believe the bio- graphical re While it is entirely possible that 8, Yucatan has been mangled in the . translation process (and certainly the writing is stilted and wooden) had one martini or thin, white line too many, the fact remains that this author's previous novel, Mac- no, won him a prize or two and a bit of acclaim. So here’s my i theory. : As with some sculpture, painting a and foreign films, there will always uO be avant-garde novels undeserving of attention that find their cham- pions. Sit male and female adult man- nequins in front of a junk-heap TV, , . add a pair of junior dummies in aa front of another, throw some emp- wets ty soup cans and Twinkie wrap- pers in for good measure and ° voila! What you have isn’t garbage ae — it’s a statement on multi- : a generational alienation in a con- a sumer-based, technological socie- ty. No matter how little respect some forms of sculpture, painting or film deserve, there will always be someone willing to ascribe to them values they simply do not possess. They'll couch their posi- tive criticism in such a way as to make you feel like an insensitive i] «6PETWITHANEW . re blurb on his ar “*,..one of Italy's foremost young writers.” or that some public relations flack . OUR ESTIMATING SERVICE ENSURES YOU OF PROPER MEASURE. WHY PAY MORE? latest novel, Yucatan, clod if you don’t agree that this is Art (like the local critic who said she cried in front of a piece of MIKE STEELE. book review abstract art of the same genre as the $1.8 million wonder we Ca- nadians now own; who can blame her?). And the same is no jess true of novels, which brings us. finally, back to Yucatan (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; 213 pp.; $21.95) but first: the story-line. Famous director Dru Resnick voyages to America with his assis- tant, David, to meet an eccentric writer named Astor Camados. The purpose of the gathering is to make a film based on one of Camados’ best-selling novels. Camados, it seems, is patterned not-so-loosely on pop author Carlos Castaneda who ‘ound that Money's weren't the only mushrooms in town, nor after in- ry vestigatng a few hundred or so, was he. But there are Strange Forces at work here. Mysterious notes and bizarre telephone calls pull the main characters hither and yon — or at least from Los Angeles to Mexico which are actually both yons from our particular hither. What are they looking for? Who knows. What will they find? Nothing. Are they all as petty, self-centered, immature and thoroughly lacking in redeeming qualities as they seem? Yes. Are all the males pouting louts who see the world through the eyes of 17- year-olds? Indubitably. Do the women all exist solely as shopp- ing-driven targets of testosterone? Need you ask? Jeez — how are you supposed to read a book when you hate everyone in it? But | gritted my teeth and did it the way the folks at the golden arches do — all for you. And I’m still trying to get the taste out of my mouth. Yucatan is a badly written novel that relies for its appeal on obscurity and enigma but (and this is important) obscurity and enigma without purpose. It is, to a large extent, a very adolescent book. Emotions are untempered by experience and maturity, attitudes are gonadal rather than the pro- See Strike Page 29 @ LIFETIME WARRANTY ON ALL INSTALLATIONS ARE GIVEN TO YOU IN WRITING. MONDAY - THURSDAY: 9:30 AM - 6:00PM FRIDAY: 9:30 AM - 9:00PM ; 7 a SATURDAY: 9:30 AM ~ 5:00PM mene 27 - Wednesday. April 4, 1990 - North Shore News Classic Abbey Classic Abbey Classic K Abbey The best blind for the IC 5 ISsDID Aeqay dIssniD Aeqqy 2 DTE got SOT ee ye Se a pectin ——¥ PPrromceatietyer aempenemat ——— — an < aaanene anima nowreraanas a. — Se =e —