Separations: Two Novels of Mothers and Children,

Motherhood is the theme of these two intimate novellas by Italian writer Bontempelli, who preceded such better-known authors of ""magic realism"" as Jorge Luis Borges and Alejo Carpentier by more than two decades in his fusion of the miraculous and the matter-of-fact. The first novella, ""The Boy with Two Mothers,"" follows a twisted sequence of events in a wealthy Roman family's life at the turn of the 20th century. The bonds between father, mother (Arianna, ""still young and attractive, at least to those who like small, plump, accommodating women with uninquiring minds"") and son Mario are severely tested when it is revealed that Mario was somehow born twice on the same day seven years ago. While Arianna does her best to fathom the phenomenon, attempting to share her son with his other mother, Luciana, the mystery proves too much for her and eventually she collapses under the strain. Arianna's disintegration may be the price she pays for her lack of imagination, but Bontempelli does not spare his other characters, either: even the spirited must answer for their own brand of selfishness. The suggestion of moral judgment is present in ""The Life and Death of Adria and Her Children,"" too, which reads at first like an ornate fairy tale. A young girl and her little brother worship at the altar of their mother, Adria, who is so beautiful that she is, quite literally, untouchable. Slowly, it becomes clear that the woman's heavenly beauty hides a crushing neurosis that plagues those who desire a relationship with her. The elegantly restrained passion of these two tales, penned in Bontempelli's delicate prose, proves yet again the writer's literary genius. (Mar.)