Review: The Ebony Tower

The Ebony Tower by John Fowles
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories and a novella, each bearing a meta-literary element or theme; the writer's mythology of writing makes an appearance.

The Ebony Tower

Henry Breasley is an elderly painter whose secluded retirement is invaded by the narrater David, commissioned to write a biographical study. The writer at work sees that Breasley shares his home with two young English girls, both former art students, one of them reading The Magus. David is left in no doubt about his host's views on modern abstract art and both puzzled and scintillated by the old man's relationship with the girls, especially when he himself is attracted to Diana.

Eliduc

A translation of a Breton lai by Marie de France with explanatory footnotes. Fowles the writer explores an ancient genre from the inside. In finding lust away from home, it mirrors David's plight in the title piece.

Poor Koko

An elderly writer has borrowed a country cottage from friends in London. On the first night of his stay, the house is burgled, but the burglar exactly a needlessly cruel price that hurts the writer as a writer.

The Enigma

John Fielding, British Member of Parliament, disappears without trace. Was foul play involved, or did he fake his own disappearance? The police officer in charge finds the most intriguing theories from a woman that suggests an analogy of a universe where a writer is constructing the plot he is attempting to unravel. This puts the officer in Kafka-esque existential despair.

The Cloud

A picnic in the south of France for an English family is a psychological diorama for deeper, troubled undercurrents. Mythologies and the idea of imperfect symbols and thus communication is brought forward. The technique of jaded adults conjuring fairy tales for children recalls to me "A Perfect Day for Bananafish".

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