The Stillest Day

Known for tales of sexual obsession that explore the darker aspects of the psyche, Hart (Damage; Sin) adds to these another title (published earlier this year in the U.K.) in which heated prose perversely describes the catastrophic disruption of repressively ordered lives. Narrator Bethesda Barnet looks back on her 30th year, when she lives with her invalid mother and teaches art at the local grammar school. The protective yet stifling ""rigid observance of habit"" and ""ancient rhythm"" that structure life in her small, turn-of-the-century village increasingly oppress her, particularly as Lord Grantleigh, wealthy village patron and Bethesda's mentor, introduces her to decadent French aestheticism. When Bethesda sets eyes on new teacher Mathew Pearson, she experiences an artistic epiphany akin to a religious vision and immediately undertakes a series of secret paintings on mirrors, meant to capture the images of both lover and beloved at once. As Bethesda's private infatuation continues, her disgust for the purely physical settles on Mathew's pregnant wife, Mary, who becomes the victim of Bethesda's bizarre act of creation and destruction on ""the stillest day,"" when released passion shatters surface calm. Hart aims to disturb and achieves her goal, although readers may be aware (especially in the gorier sections) that the author has done this before, and in much the same way. Yet Hart has refined her technique, and learned to use atmosphere as a plot element rather than mere background detail, granting this study of erotic, artistic and religious passion a complexity her earlier novels lacked. Author tour. (Sept.)