Marble Skin

Drakulic, a Croatian feminist who may be best known here for her essays ( The Balkan Express ; How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed ), trains her formidable intelligence on a daring, worthy theme: the reconciliation of female sexuality with maternity. Her narrator is a sculptor whose latest work, a rendering of a sexually aroused woman which is titled ``My Mother's Body,'' triggers her mother's attempted suicide. Rushing to her mother's bedside, the sculptor reviews her feelings about her mother and her sense of her own femininity. She ponders the pivotal moment in her relationship with her mother, describing how, when she was in late adolescence and her mother was a young and beautiful widow, her mother's lover seduced her and her mother chose not to believe her account of the incident. Rarely, however, does Drakulic communicate to the reader her narrator's sense of urgency: methodically analyzing and reanalyzing the sculptor's memories and her impressions, she also drains them of vitality. Awkward phrasing and diction, however, cast doubts upon the translation, which is based on the French and not the original edition. (Feb.)