Sunken red

Two epigraphs introduce this wrenching novel. One is taken from Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe: "But in his accustomed way, wrapping himself in mystery, he looked at me wide-eyed, and said these words: 'The mothers! Mothers! How marvellous that sounds!'" The other is from "The Song of the Dead," from the South Celebes: "Seek me while I am here. Know me because I am here. I am here. And yet it is certain that I am not here." These flashes of dark light, the alternating current of love and estrangement, are the pulses that have molded an artist and blasted a life. It is clear that the…