Recollections of the Golden Triangle

Misogyny, paranoia, hallucination and vampirism permeate this loathsome and obscure literary thriller. The Golden Triangle of the title refers to a bizarre sex cult that requires a steady supply of adolescent girls for sacrifice. The sordid tale is narrated by a kidnapper who passes himself off as a mad doctor who revels in slicing off the clothes of his prey (""I slit the golden dress axially with a single stroke of the scalpel''). He muses, ``No sooner have I opened the paper at the sex-crimes page than I feel a flush come to my cheeks,'' and offers recurring images of ``golden pubic fleece,'' ``the black triangle of fleece,'' ``the incipient fleece'' and the ``Titian-red pubis.'' And there's also a disturbed chief of police who derives ``great refreshment from sleeping in the warmth of a victim already destined for the executioners' instruments.'' Unsuspecting readers should be forewarned. The author, a pioneer of ``nouveau roman,'' or new novel, wrote Jealously, etc.(October)