cover image The Fisher King

The Fisher King

Anthony Powell. Heinemann Educational Books, $0 (255pp) ISBN 978-0-434-59926-4

The Fisher King is the maimed, exiled, impotent, mysterious figure of Arthurian legend. The analogous figure in Powell's first full-length novel since his 12-volume A Dance to the Music of Time is Saul Henchman, a war-wounded, crippled photographer with a distinguished reputation. To complicate several livesnotably those of Gary Lamont, an ambitious newspaper tycoon and a s young man-about-town named JilsonHenchman's companion is ravishing ballerina Barberina Rookwood. The setting is a holiday cruise of the British Isles. Also on board are Sir Dixon and Lady Tiptoft and their daughter; the amorous drinker Mr. Jack; Professor Kopf, an American; Valentine Beals, the immensely popular author of historical thrillers and his caustic, disenchanted wife; and their friends, adman Piers Middlecote and wife. Beals serves as narrator and commentator on the intrigues and entanglements in this novel of manners, class and caste. Whatever his stylistic eccentricities (and they are numerous), Powell's touch is light, his invention unfailing, his wit and intelligence undimmed. (September 22)