Cannibal Kiss

The narrator of this kaleidoscopic fantasy writes the closing sentence of his novel-in-progress, which becomes the opening sentence of the narrative we are reading: ``In the end, Bird, naked and painted in blue, slid open the door to the airplane and merged with the azure sky.'' A few lines later, the fictional Bird lands in the ``world of the suffering writer.'' Named after saxophonist Charlie Parker, beautiful Bird lives out her every whim in the imagination of her ``writer,'' to whom she mails notes and videotapes from ``Birdland.'' Always with her as friend and grail, if invisibly, is Chameleon,quotes unnec.? who presumbly is Odier (aka Delacorta, author of Diva ) himself. In dream-like sequences, Bird's free-flying travels take her to a soccer match played by giraffe-women and a statuesque prostitute who sleeps while she works. During her visit with ``cannibals'' Mia, Boto, Oswald and Harmonia, Bird learns that ``eating'' the ``answers'' in other people as they ``eat'' yours is the ``hidden expression of every individualist.'' Bird is no less voracious in her wanderlust, and she expresses her hunger in an inimitably French way. Flirtatious, ingenuous and capricious, she provokes amusement and desire in everyone she meets. Most readers will respond in like fashion. Although the novel's structural parallel to ``bebop'' is at times bewildering, it adds up to an enjoyable romp. (Nov.)