The Painted Alphabet

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY MAR 2, 1992

Darling, an American sculptor who lives in Bali, has taken an old Balinese witch story in verse and recast it as a fantasy novel that opens a window on an exotic culture. The central figure, Siladri, disillusioned with a world full of evil and corruption, leaves home with his wife and niece to become an ascetic. Other characters include a bewitched, destructive girl who turns incandescent colors like a chameleon, an old magician who talks with animals and a wealthy ogre seven times divorced. Magic warfare ensues when evil forces attempt to kidnap Siladri's niece. The characters represent moral principles, but Darling avoids a schematic allegory, imbuing this debut novel with a complex texture through deliberate anachronisms, lilting prose that captures the rhythms of Balinese life and interjected commentary on creeping Western materialism embodied in fast food, tourism and TV. Though the writing is self-assured, it seems artificial and fails to evoke an emotional response in the reader.