Eve's Tattoo

On her 40th birthday, Eve, a WASP New York magazine columnist of German descent, has the ID number of an Auschwitz victim tattooed on her arm. This number is identical to that worn by an unidentified inmate in a 1944 death-camp photograph, whom Eve calls ``Eva.'' Disturbed by her tattoo, her live-in lover, French-born filmmaker Charles, walks out; Eve then discovers that he was born Jewish and had converted to Catholicism, conflicted over his parents who were Nazi collaborators. While inventing variant life histories for Eva, Eve soon seems to split into a dual personality, holding conversations with Eva and probing such questions as why masses of German women ardently supported Hitler. Penthouse columnist and novelist Prager ( Clea and Zeus Divorce ) never satisfactorily explains Eve's obsession, which resembles a mental illness; her story, without metaphorical reverberation, is flawed. (Sept.)