A unique, poetic novel like no other. Ostensibly a diary, Hutchins captures a whole range of feelings - personal, sensual - in this first-person coming-of-age tale. Hutchins plays around with space and time and her stylistically vibrant writing is always surprising and absorbing. This is my second time reading this book and I am enjoying it even more than I did back in 1980 when I first read it upon the recommendation of Anais Nin - in her 1968 non-fiction _The Novel of the Future_.

The following quote, found in the novel's introduction, hints at the unexpectedness, the startling quality of the writing: "I do not know my lines, even my cue, for neither has been written. I am the playwright and I do not know what will happen." Hutchins may not know what will happen, but she most assuredly knows HOW to tell us. This is a groundbreaking and fascinating novel that unfolds in an improbably lovely way. ( )