Elaine Feinstein: Dark Inheritence

By PHILIPPA JAMIESON*

I had heard of Elaine Feinstein but never read anything by this accomplished novelist, poet and biographer. Now I'll be looking out for more.

Dark Inheritance is a stylish and intelligent literary mystery. It starts in London, introducing Rachel O'Malley, a writer and reviewer whose ebbing bitterness about her failed marriage is giving way to the need for excitement and a new challenge in her life.

This comes in the form of an assignment to write an article about Emanuel Cellini, an Italian whose first novel has created a stir - the story appears to be strongly autobiographical and includes incest between a teenage boy and his stepmother.

Rachel's curiosity is piqued. How much of the book is based on fact? Was Cellini the teenage boy? Did his reclusive, depressed mother fall from the balcony or was she pushed? Was Cellini's father, a well-known politician, really a violent man with Mafia links?

When Rachel arrives in Rome she meets the father, Giorgio Cellini, by chance at a party, and is flattered but slightly disturbed by his attentions.

She becomes wrapped up in trying to uncover the family's secrets, helped by an old friend and former object of her affections, Joshua Silk. He's the one who realises that Rachel is being followed.

Despite various hints of danger which might have warned off others, Rachel persists with her investigations. She tracks down the elusive, withdrawn Emanuel, who takes her into his trust, but it's not what she expects. And she accepts a dinner invitation from Giorgio.

Finally, an unforeseen climax sends Rachel into a spin and forces her to focus on her own family relationships, and she learns more about herself than the Cellinis.

Feinstein is a competent writer. Her style is elegant, precise, pared, if occasionally self-conscious. She explores the range of love and human relationships by providing a collage of examples.

The coincidences and connections between the characters are too prevalent to be believable, but the skeins of story are finely crafted, interlacing sexual intrigue, family skeletons, myth and history.

By the end, I wanted to know more. There are many questions left unanswered, but good writing should be thought-provoking. Dark Inheritance leaves the reader pondering for days afterwards.

And ultimately, do the details of past mysteries and traumas really matter, or is it how people deal with them in the present that really counts?

Women's Press

$29.95

* Philippa Jamieson is a Dunedin reviewer.