The Angelic Darkness

Androgyny and the occult offer solutions to a painful spiritual crisis in this mystical account of a divorced man's struggle for personal transformation in 1980s San Francisco. After his chronic philandering breaks up his marriage, psychically fragile Bill Ticino is afraid of the dark and cannot sleep, alone in his suddenly empty home. His job as the editor of a corporate magazine is unfulfilling, and offers him no refuge. To remedy the situation he takes in a housemate, the mysterious, handsome androgynous Peter who brings his pet hoopoe bird, Maria. Bill is immediately fascinated by Peter, drawn to him not only by his looks, but by his odd, poetic way of speaking, his acute sense of smell, his strange stories about mythical creatures and human atrocities, his seeming ability to read Bill's thoughts, the bizarre talismans and Holocaust relics he collects, and the unmistakable impression that he is not quite what he seems. Peter introduces Bill to some other unusual characters from his world, encourages him to interview prostitutes in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, and gradually reveals more--though never all--of his secrets. Bill's exploration of his own androgyny becomes the key to his recovery and transformation. Zimler (The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon) relies little on present action in the novel, often preferring to have characters sit and tell stories to one another. But the candid first-person narrative generates suspense, as well as a deep concern for what will happen to narrator Bill. The brooding atmosphere and carefully if funereally paced plot promise a strong denouement, but this one is surprisingly perfunctory. Zimler is skilled at evoking an eerie San Francisco underworld, but his need to imbue nearly every moment with undefinable, kabbalistic significance ultimately wears thin. (Sept.)