Temptation: A User’s Guide - Softcover

Vesna Main’s novel is inventive, witty, “experimental” in style and structure, but none the less involving and powerful for that. It is written in purely dialogue form and makes a point of leaving its readers with their own share of imaginative work to do. The multiple narratives are ingeniously interwoven and the dialogue handled with a deftness of touch that keeps readers perpetually on their toes. Although she has learned some handy lessons from Nathalie Sarraute and other, mainly French practitioners of the “new novel” Vesna Main here shows herself a highly distinctive, adventurous, and formally accomplished writer whose work should find many admirers.

The Reader, the Writer is a dialogue novel, a rare species which has roots in Plato’s , and has since been adopted by a small number of writers from Diderot through to Dave Eggers. Its format is well suited to the discussion of ideas in depth. The Reader, the Writer is a pure example: there is only dialogue, without scene-setting, introduction to protagonists, description or exposition. It addresses a problem seldom spoken of, but surely not uncommon in our sexually open society.

Lush Library Recommends: Anna James’ Books for 2018

Variations and fugue on the theme of obsession

Vesna Main disturbs our self-image as educated, reasonable and ironic people who read modernist fiction. She disturbs us because we recognise ourselves in her obsessive and bloody-minded characters as they are pushed to the extreme. But they are only too human and seek love, just like us.

This is a collection of twenty short stories of different lengths and written in a variety of styles. Main writes about characters whose passion borders on obsession and who are seeking love and companionship but are doomed to remain alone, with their sense of personal failure as the only company.