Good Girls Don't Wear Trousers

Written when the author was 19, this novel caused a scandal in the Sicilian village where she grew up; it became a bestseller in Europe. What may be provocative on one side of the Atlantic, however, can seem merely overblown when exported, and this slender effort bears an unfortunate resemblance to a B-movie. Annetta chafes at the strictures imposed on girls in her small Sicilian town: ``Here, women can be wives and mothers but they can never be people.'' Her own rebellion culminates in kissing a boy in a public place, which lands her in predictable trouble-her father beats her, her mother curses her and both ship her off in disgrace to her aunt and uncle's house. Ironically, this new setting returns Annetta to the scene of her first disillusionment with societal conventions, as the uncle had molested Annetta when she was nine. Cardella lays great stress on the hypocrisy of the adults who control Annetta's life, but she does so clunkily, with an abundance of gratuitous pronouncements and a dearth of art-the novel is nine parts telling to one part showing. Part of the problem may lie in the translation: the original title, for example, is the rather more subtle Volevo i pantaloni (I Wanted Trousers). (Sept.)