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A Presence with Secrets
A character portrait of Hugh Tatnall, a successful American painter and an unrepentent rake, traces his thirty-odd years of amorous adventure with one idle, worldly woman after another
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 8, 2021
Tasty prose, but Tatnall is tedious.
May 1, 2011
Man to Woman: "God help me, what can a man do with a woman he's out of his mind over, but offer her any excuse he can think of for doing what he helplessly hopes she'll do no matter what he says?"
Woman in response to Man: "Oh sweetie are you charming me again?"
And then to bed. In this novel 23 year old students (female) are always lusting after their 53 year old professors (male), who live lives that might make rock stars jealous. Since the male charms offered are indiscernible, I surmise the females acquiesce in obedience to male privilege. Spackman was a classics professor. Wish fulfillment or autobiography? I wonder? The dated attitudes and long-winded, self-aggrandizing sentences reminded me of Robertson Davies in The Rebel Angels (or of an annoyingly pretentious classical music radio announcer) so I skipped chunks of this short text. However, Spackman's style is superior to Davies and when he describes women (especially in the long final section) you will be thoroughly seduced as the charming creatures prance about, breathlessly trying to catalog their own dizzying excitement as they succumb to desire.
Woman in response to Man: "Oh sweetie are you charming me again?"
And then to bed. In this novel 23 year old students (female) are always lusting after their 53 year old professors (male), who live lives that might make rock stars jealous. Since the male charms offered are indiscernible, I surmise the females acquiesce in obedience to male privilege. Spackman was a classics professor. Wish fulfillment or autobiography? I wonder? The dated attitudes and long-winded, self-aggrandizing sentences reminded me of Robertson Davies in The Rebel Angels (or of an annoyingly pretentious classical music radio announcer) so I skipped chunks of this short text. However, Spackman's style is superior to Davies and when he describes women (especially in the long final section) you will be thoroughly seduced as the charming creatures prance about, breathlessly trying to catalog their own dizzying excitement as they succumb to desire.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews