Simple Prayers

Set on a tiny island near Venice, Golding's evocative debut novel possesses the charm and innocence of a folk tale. Rendered in dreamlike, discontinuous vignettes, the collective life of the 14th-century villagers throbs to the beat of seasonal change. They cherish the fruits of the earth while at the same time sanctioning a primeval acceptance of death. In a brief prologue, the ex-monk Piero stumbles on a rotting corpse, which he quickly buries before the rest of the village discovers its presence. Meanwhile, vividly portrayed lives go on. The shrewish soapmaker Velantona and her frail daughter live in mutual dependency, each pondering murder in her heart. Albertino, a young farmer, allows the adoring Ermenegilda--pudgy, spoiled and rich--to seduce him among the tombstones. One day a mysterious, madonna-like stranger arrives and gives birth to a boy, inspiring a sculpture of Virgin and Child. These rustic rhythms come to a shocking halt with the Plague. Golding's compassionate, parable-like rendering of life's close is less suggestive of horror than of consent, invoking a medieval dance-of-death motif ennobled by individual fulfillment and self-knowledge. Movie rights to Warner Brothers. (Apr.)