RaveLeonardo... a kind of blues or threnody in minor chords with subtle, frenzied overtones ... In order for this kind of novel to exceed the narrative tropes that define it, a keen poetic intelligence is necessary. Our author knows this, and uses that knowledge to effect; investing the narrative with linguistic resonance rooted in associations derived from root definitions. For a scholar of humanities and social and political thought, which our author also is, this is not rare. But in the refinements that she brings to her writing, less concerned with character than the atmosphere that characters and events inspire—a palette led by shimmering layers of chiaroscuro and the reveries attached to them—her literary skill clarifies.
