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The book is old, and the pages may be browned. There are creases on the spine and corners, and worn around the edges. The book is still very readable, but has seen some wear.
The facts, in this strange Norwegian novel, are mostly hidden. Ash, a married man, is on trial for brutally attacking a hotel porter who broke in while Ash was forcibly seducing a woman in a hotel room. Ash has recently been in trouble elsewhere, in another hotel where he raped a 17 year old girl. Yet the book, in vague but furious tirades against prudery, authority, etc. and in defense of "The Norwegian soul" and "Man's freedom", apparently attempts to prove that Ash was merely upholding his right to privacy. Through this web of justification, Ash appears dimly and perhaps inadvertently as a vengeful, frustrated man, who conceives of love as rape and whose violent loathing of "Peeping Toms" may be a fear of his own guilt-ridden conscience. This does not seem to be the author's overt intention. Ash is glorified, grinds the opposition into scorn in his final defense, and is acquitted. This unpleasant novel is a rather remarkable defense and revelation of a sick mind- and most troubling in that its intended viewpoint is never clearly stated. Some may remember the earlier (1960) Lasso Round the Moon, also a difficult book. (Kirkus Reviews)
