This breathless, elliptical little novel from Wagman (Mrs. Hornstein
) pursues the shocking affair between Otto Von Ochsenstein, brilliant pianist and conductor of the Philadelphia Philharmonic, and his pre-teen neighbor. A Lolita at 11, with a pillowy lower lip that resembles "a tiny little behind," Hannah Elizabeth Gold is keenly aware of her effect on the illustrious patriarch whose family moves into the white stucco mansion next door. Otto is married to Charlotte Hec, a former ballerina of unparalleled beauty, and the two have a daughter, Juliet, who attends the local Catholic school with Hannah. None of it prevents Otto from training his binoculars on Hannah's window ("This is what everything in the universe hungers for," proclaims Otto). Smitten and slavish, Hannah performs nightly for him in front of her bedroom window and bends her talent at the cello to the whims of the maestro. Otto nurses Hannah's nascent genius, frees her from filial and school constraints, and utterly destroys her innocence and ability to feel for others. Hannah's acuity injects a cutting bitterness to this sharp little Nietzschean parable, marred egregiously by the relentless use of ellipses. (Oct.)
