cover image It Does Not Die: A Romance

It Does Not Die: A Romance

Maitreyi Devi, Maitraye. University of Chicago Press, $22.5 (264pp) ISBN 978-0-226-14363-7

Devi (1914-1990), though best known as a poet, ironically takes fewer artistic liberties than Eliade (see above) in her plainly autobiographical account of their relationship. ``Why did you not write the truth, Mircea?'' she asks no one in particular, describing the complex and lasting pain that his book--in which her real name was used and in which she was portrayed as a flirtatious, sex-minded character who came to his bed frequently--has caused her. She tells how she has had to keep the novel--though filled with ``lies''--a secret from her family and her husband. Devi's story, more true-to-life, is less predictably patterned than Eliade's; her account of her confused feelings toward him is less polished. Devi tells of her meeting with Eliade for the first (and only) time after the end of their romance; as a much older woman aware of her mortality, she moves us with her description of Eliade's resigned sense of meaninglessness in the world, and with her own ``tiny bird of hope.'' (Apr.)