The God in Flight

Starred review from January 2, 1995
Argiri's ambitious, captivating debut is a Victorian novel with a twist: her lovers are ``men of the lavender persuasion.'' Pale, blond 16-year-old Simion Satterwhite, the battered child of a hateful West Virginia fundamentalist preacher, arrives at Yale in 1878. His path soon crosses that of the darkly handsome, 31-year-old Doriskos Klionarios, a Greek-born professor and artist with his own shrouded past. The attraction is immediate; indeed, Dori has for years sketched the face of an unknown boy who comes to life in Simion. Yet the virginal Dori fears to consummate his love for the boy, while it takes the catharsis of near-fatal illness to make Simion understand the depth of Dori's devotion. (Simion's bad health-stomach ulcers and fainting spells-suggest the convention of Victorian heroines.) During the summer of Simion's convalescence, Doriskos is inspired to create The God in Flight, a marble sculpture in the Classical style modeled on himself and Simion. The statue, which wins a prestigious prize for sculpture, for a time threatens to be their undoing. Argiri's lush prose is infused with a romantic sensibility: ice buckets filled with melting snow, sheets edged in Battenberg lace, gifts of coral roses. Though she ignores the historical sweep of the era (the aftereffects of the Civil War and Reconstruction are barely mentioned), Argiri provides an enchanting menagerie of bullies and villains, friends and mentors. And her pair of lovers are as memorable as Mary Renault's Alexander and Bagoas. Many readers should be delighted by this haunting blend of melodrama and fancy.