They Whisper

Known for the psychological acuity of his six previous novels and for the short story collection, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain , for which he won the Pulitzer last year, Butler here moves into new territory. This is a literary novel about the physical chemistry of sensual love, told in lyrical prose via a sensitive narrator who venerates the memories of the many women with whom he has coupled, and who ``hears'' the whispers of their voices, which are interwoven into the text. At 35, Ira Holloway is a man who lives intensely through his senses; the slightest visual or olfactory stimulation releases sensual memories, which he recollects in a highly charged stream of consciousness. Holloway's sexual experiences go back to his youth in Wabash, Ill., his service in Vietnam, his affairs in Zurich and in New York, where he currently works in public relations. But Holloway is not a conventional, and thereby contemptible, womanizer; he is a man whose eroticism is coupled with a true appreciation of female sexuality and respect for women as individuals. More than a mere litany of sexual unions, the novel is, au fond , the record of Holloway's tormented marriage to a woman in the grip of a religious obsession that accelerates from eccentric to insane, and the anguished decisions he makes for the sake of their son. While the descriptions of erotic love are integral to the plot, the highly charged sensuality, the details of the rising stages of lust and the relentless stream-of-consciousness monologue sometimes grow wearisome. Some may empathize with Holloway when he confesses: ``I can become a little overwhelmed by the vast chorus that sings all around me, all the women, their throats throbbing in an Ode to Joy.'' 75,000 first printing; author tour. (Jan.)