Enemy of the Average

With several major literary influences (the Brothers Grimm topping the list), this awkward saga chronicles the rise of Zdenka Oleska, a preternaturally beautiful, selfish Polish peasant (based on an unidentified historical figure) who grows up in the years before WWI to marry into ever-increasing pots of not quite credible wealth provided by not quite credibly smitten men. Grandly conceived by first-novelist Nicol on the model of a six-act opera, with few concessions made to realism, this roman a clef throws pacing to the winds, concetrating on the first 20 years of its Bovaryesque heroine's long life. By the time this woman reaches early middle age (having left Poland for St. Petersburg, then Switzerland, Paris, New York, Chicago and Paris again, and having made several million early-century dollars in the process), Nicol seems to lose the will to follow her further. Zdenka's last 40 years are covered in several dozen pages before her life is patly resolved in the form of a briefly mentioned, soul-soothing new devotion to gardening. With its unwieldy length and lack of focus, the novel is finally too sloppily executed to find wide appeal. (July)