RED STAG

The lush fields and woods of Normandy during the 1960s and '70s are the setting for this coming-of-age novel and revenge drama, a debut with the feel of a 19th-century novel. Vincent, the illegitimate child of a maid, grows up on the estate of the Count and Countess of Costebelle. He develops a close relationship with his uncle Serge, the gamekeeper, and after he graduates from boarding school, works for a summer pitching hay and cutting firewood on the estate. That same summer, Serge is brutally murdered, presumably by poachers hunting the prized red stag that roams the grounds. The count promotes Vincent to take Serge's place, and Vincent vows revenge on the poachers, but he is pulled in a different direction when the count's daughter, Nicole, returns from Paris; sparks fly as she and Vincent rekindle their childhood friendship. De la Valdène's descriptions of the Norman forests and wildlife are rich and graceful, and he expertly captures the shades of difference between the privileged life of the aristocracy, town life and Vincent's sheltered existence. As the novel reaches its autumnal climax, the local hunt club sets out after the red stag, Serge's killers are finally identified and the count provides Vincent with shocking information about his paternity. No amount of lush scene setting can disguise the creakiness of De la Valdène's anachronistic, melodramatic storytelling, but the vivid hunting tableaus provide some recompense for the turgid plotting. (Sept.)