cover image Fearful Symmetry: 8

Fearful Symmetry: 8

Greg Bills. Dutton Books, $23.95 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-525-94081-4

In the manner of Sade, though with neither the reach of his genius nor the edge of his madness, Bills (Consider This Home, 1994) explores, in a sexually charged novel set in Southern California, the philosophical and erotic aspects of sadomasochism and bondage. When recent design-school graduate Peter Keith, gay and 25, moves next door to Chaz and Muriel Lambent, he finds himself enmeshed in their bizarre psychosexual world. Soon voyeuristic curiosity leads to mutual seduction. What subsequently unfolds is a tale that is, as narrator Peter puts it, ""violent, lurid, and baroque."" Graphic sex scenes mix and match bodies, sex acts (including a full-body shave) and appurtenances such as olive oil, leather masks and silk-sheathed chains. Peter rebels against his neighbors' domination when he uncovers their penchant for animal and human sacrifice. Interspersed with this main story line is Muriel's Scheherazade-like ""Tale of the Angel and His Bride,"" told to Peter, and Chaz's claim that he and Muriel are ""The Blond Ones,"" products of German genetic engineering. A bloody scene of mayhem and disaster caps the action in clear fashion, but what Peter finally discovers about himself and his relationships remains opaque. He hopes, as the novel closes, to ""learn what kind of life might persist after a heart's illicit union with the celestial""-not to mention after a body has been spoon-fed with wrists and ankles shackled and a black rubber hood pulled over its eyes. (June)