Arrival and Departure

ARRIVING in “Neutralia” as a stowaway from some unspecified country “between the Danube and the Balkans,” Peter Slavek carries no visible baggage. But his mind is freighted with memories of working for the “Party,” of his imprisonment and torture, and with those earlier and deeper memories of childhood that interest psychiatrists most of all. There is a psychiatrist in this book — Dr. Sonia Bolgar, who is also a refugee. She digs relentlessly into Peter’s past for his own good, and to the reader’s enlightenment. The device is not new, but it is skillfully employed here. Symbolism flows through this fine narrative, but the reader need take only as much of it as he likes. He may read for the love story and the urgent (if not clearly definable) suspense induced by action that is almost entirely psychological; but if he does so, he is likely to be disappointed by the truncated ending — for the narrative is chopped off short. The brief epilogue is too clearly an afterthought to fit the excellent story that precedes it.