Several Deceptions

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Jane Stevenson's devilishly clever collection of four novellas is a delight to read. Her writing is smart, satirical, and at times very nearly over the top. In the first novella, an Anglo-Italian "professore," progeny of the Strachey "glitterati," decides that he can up the ante for his father's literary estate if he has a bit of fun. Hiring a secretarial temp to help organize the endless piles of materials, he inserts her into history, creating "a species of literary miner's canary." As often is the case, avarice proves his undoing, and his little zealot, "Miss Average Reader," has the last laugh.

Deceit plays a role in all four pieces, and in the erudite second, "Law and Order," a pair of identical twins-first-year law students Hendrik and Florian-are divided by a Svengali-like professor about whom rumors of war crimes swirl. When Hendrik decamps with his girlfriend, Florian beats a hasty retreat for the companionship of his professor and another acolyte. A reasonable scenario except for those nasty rumors-and the guns that Hendrik finds in his brother's room.

In the third novella, "The Colonel and Judy O'Grady," the acquaintance between an Irishwoman turned Buddhist and a military officer in India is revealed, complete with an O'Henryesque twist. And Stevenson's final piece in the collection, "Crossing the Water," assembles a group of Brits at a friend's country home. Emboldened by goblets full of claret, they contrive to burgle a painting from a neighbor, with archly humorous results.

From the Publisher

"Four exquisitely crafted novellas introduce a brilliant new writer."—Harpers & Queen

“An impressive first collection . . . These stories are refreshingly, unapologetically erudite. They are also extremely funny.”

Observer

“Here is a gossipy, smart, critical, intellectual, high-spirited and literate voice. It is like a secret retreat where readers can simply rejoice in intelligent, stylish prose.”

Times Literary Supplement

"Witty . . . cultured and ironic . . . lavish and precise at evoking place through culture and language."

The San Diego Union-Tribune

"Like a small box of chocolate truffles, these delicious novellas. . . should be carried in a handbag or briefcase . . . for a quick hit of wit or the jolt of a . . . clever surprise ending." USA Today

Ann Prichard

Several Deceptions is a like a small box of chocolate truffles, these delicious novellas by Jane Stevenson should be carried in a handbag or briefcase, close at hand for a quick hit of wit or the jolt of a fiendishly clever surprise ending.
— USA Today

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The nature of the self, and how it mutates, is a recurring theme in the four novellas making up London-born Stevenson's smart debut. In "The Island of the Day Before Yesterday," pretentious Italian semiotician Simone Strachey is summoned by the Sunday Times to organize the estate of his dead father, a minor member of Rome's literati. The humorously erudite protagonist goes to London and hires a frumpy secretary to help sort through the papers, but he soon gets his comeuppance amid Stevenson's delightfully nimble turns of phrase. When Simone, misguidedly altruistic, decides to pretend that "Dreary Dora" was a member of the late Strachey's glamorous scene, she winds up posing as Simone's effervescent, underrated wife, a '6os cult figure, and steals the show. "Law and Order" is a dark glimpse into the unraveling relationship of twins Henrik and Florian, who, while studying law at the University of Leiden, fall under the spell of a professor who has frightening views about crime and responsibility. "The Colonel and Judy O'Grady" chronicles a grad student's infatuation with exotic Ananda, formerly Judy O'Grady and currently a Buddhist nun who has erased her past. The creepy "Crossing the Water" is a sinister finale, with unemployed artist Oliver on a lake trip with a bunch of upper-crust art historians whose class snobbishness may play a part in their incipient tragedy. Most of the book's characters are highbrow Europeans, and their diction may be off-putting to some readers. But Stevenson realizes the hilarious parodic effect of their ultra-proper intonations, especially when she places them in deliciously vulnerable situations. (Sept.) FYI: The author's upcoming novel, London Bridges, will be published by Houghton Mifflin in 2001. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|