cover image Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Leslie Kaplan. Station Hill Press, $9.95 (150pp) ISBN 978-0-88268-112-2

This astute and mystifying novel by a French psychologist follows two men, two women and a little girl who become acquainted in a New York City park. As their relationships develop, they reveal their desires: Immigrant Chico wants a new homeland and a woman to love; Anna craves danger and excitement; Mary longs to understand and feel closer to her child, Nathalie. Lastly, there is Julien--a seductive, violent Brooklynite who attaches himself to Nathalie and steals Anna's heart. Deftly, Kaplan explores adult and childhood sexuality, the bond between parent and offspring and our universal search for the child within, even as we deny its existence. Her style is refreshingly impressionistic and lyrical, revealing the tale through the unconscious drives and associative imagery of characters who in other respects remain deliberately shadowy. Driven by traumatic childhood memories, Julien, for instance, paces the city and sees a landscape that matches his emotions: ``Matter and color, and always the sky, the changing frameless sky which rolls and shifts, beckons and carries away.'' (Jan.)