It is Carters genius, in tion, to make ty and t a metapions. No is ty . In quot;ts; it is for ty to save ts life, igers Bridequot;, Beauty ically transformed into an exquisite animal ;. . . eacroke of ongue ripped off skin after skin, all t be patina of urned back to er. . . I siful fur.quot; As tamorpo a nerument of desire, allo;animalquot; in tual as igeris;t;, y and t  be reconciled.  revenge.

    tion expands to take in many otales; blood and love, ale, underlie and unify t;t; love and blood unite in ty grorous, Beastly. In quot;t; ale territory of s ers modern imagination kno for every Count tess, olerate asy-rival. ttle of t betoo.

    tes and perfects Carters brilliant, reinventing syntion t Grandmot actually be t;t;); or equally radical, equally s t ty) mig; t s conquer tory sexuality, ic ;, and to cer made ogetives, is to long for te.

    quot;olf-Alicequot; offers final metamorpy, only ts: a cannibal Duke, and a girl reared by ery of  is, rual flow. By blood, and by w s make a house uncosy.

    At lengtains becomes

    monotonous. . . urned and stared at tain

    for a long time.  for fourteen years

    but  before as it might look

    to someone  as almost a part

    of to it,  turn into

    so muco th for

    an old country tale, tale of a child suckled by

    wolves, perhaps, or of wolves nursed by a woman.

    Carters fareo ain-country, at t ory, quot;Peter and t; in Black Venus, signals t, like ;tramped ono a different storyquot;.

    t-and-out fantasy in tion, a meditation on A Midsummer Nig prefigures (and is better tory Carters linguistic exoticism is in full flig;breezes, juicy as mangoes, t myt of Coromandel far a;. But, as usual, ic common-sense yanks tory back to eart disappears in an exquisite puff of smoke. t;no ed someerlogged and t e of tory, been co make room for a motorers elegant fugue on Sed to;dark necromantic forestquot; of t, so be lost in it is to fall prey to monsters and c in a ;you purposely mislay your ;; t;is kind to loversquot;. ale precisely and unforgettably defined.

    Mostly, s successor, American Gs and Old orld onders, escasy ers revisionist imagination urned toerest toraiture rative. t pieces in ter books are portraits -- of Baudelaires black mistress Jeanne Duval, of Edgar Allan Poe, and, in tories, of Lizzie Borden long before s;took an axequot;, and ttention to detail -- t-ing tion, menstruating. s on a nearby tree. (Once again, as ories, one   have.)

    Baudelaire, Poe, Dream-So, fairy tale: Carter ionist, teur. Sakes s it togeteous le, is tale of ilations y Sed by a very different Ford; and tures -- of pantomime cers are revealed.

    Sory for us, like an egg, and finds tory, tory  to hin.

    No suc er. Carters  takes place over a s simes falls off, no getting abreaks of fol-de-rol, and some of  ardent admirers oo muc;eldritc;, too many men ;, too muco please a certain sort of purist. But ten s off; en stes  falling, or juggles  dropping a ball.

    Accused by lazy pens of political correctness, s individual, independent and idiosyncratic of ers; dismissed by many in ime as a marginal, cultisic emporary er most studied at Britisies -- a victory over tream she would have enjoyed.

    S finisalo Calvino, like Bruce C of ers, t deatence, so to speak. tories in t treasure, to savour and to hoard.

    Raymond Carver is said to old ;ere out t teraturequot;. Carver  modest of men, but ten been told, ion, in ime, of t soo, is out t terature, a Ray of tain of Eternal Day.

    Salman Rushdie, May 1995