The Absolutes

May 15, 2023
A young American woman spends 15 years in the obsessive, erotic thrall of an Italian nobleman who lives by the rigid "principles" described by the title of Dektar's second novel. Nora first meets the handsome, mysteriously charismatic Nicola in a ski gondola while she's staying with relatives in Turin. She's a troubled 15-year-old who self-cuts and obsesses about "different kinds of power," and he's slightly older. Nora's cousin Federica, with whom Nora shares an erotically charged connection, describes Nicola vaguely as "evil," but when he touches Nora's shoulder to calm her fear of heights, she experiences a thrilling shock. Five years later, she runs into Nicola at a party at her American college. After they speak briefly, she becomes convinced that, for her, Nicola will always be "the pinnacle of something." Just what that "something" is becomes the novel's central unanswered question. Years pass. At 28, Nora believes she's content living with a "good" man in Brooklyn and working as a researcher for a financial intelligence company. Nora claims she no longer "dwell[s] on control and power." Wrong! Nicola shows up yet again, and the rest of the novel charts Nora's slide into their long, increasingly sadomasochistic affair. Recently married and working for his extremely rich, corrupt, perhaps even murderous father, Nicola initially stokes Nora's desire through talk without touch. His religious mysticism, philosophic pronouncements concerning good and bad, and brutal views on (his own) superiority strike Nora as "romantic," full of "grand passion, honor, irrational, primitive devotion." Soon the two are sharing not only interminable conversations, but graphic sex, by turns violent and demeaning as Nicola's demands intensify. His willing partner, Nora craves his control. She wants to be hit and strangled even while recognizing "something wrong" with Nicola's entwining of vengeance and intimacy. The book lives inside Nora's perceptions, which after a while become as redundant as the sex itself. Perfect for those who like a soup�on of Wittgenstein and a dollop of Meister Eckhart with their sadomasochism.

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June 1, 2023
Dektar (The Ash Family, 2019) is back with another haunting work of literary fiction. An American teen living in Turin, Italy, Nora meets Nicola, a dashing young Italian from an influential family. Nora can't name the feelings that come along with their connection: desire, lust, hunger. He's deeply charismatic, but that charisma has a dangerous side. Nicola can convince Nora to do or accept things that she normally wouldn't, like being involved in a scheme to sabotage Nicola's father. All that Nicola asks of risk-averse Nora doesn't just feel risky, but mandatory. Their affair, which spans across time and across continents, is a gorgeous portrait of love, desire, treachery, and intellect. Dektar's language is sensual and rich with texture, especially in details of the snowy Turin mountainside and the humming streets of New York. Like an alchemist, Dektar balances ethereal moments of intimacy with very pedestrian images of daily life. Readers will be left thinking about this mysterious, dazzling love story long after closing the back cover.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.