Spectacle at the Tower

An unhappily married German couple is on vacation in Sicily--``a meticulously detailed journey through a hell the reader may often be anxious to leave.'' In a dusty, desolate town, the couple's car breaks down, and they witness the spectacle of a beautiful boy's suicide from a tower. PW likened this tale to the sun at midday: ``harsh, pitiless, burning and relentless.'' (Sept.)