[The novella] The Day Is Dark deals with three couples…. We glimpse the couples as children and as adults, follow their meetings, their separations, and their ultimately tragic adventures in the summer sun or winter cold of Quebec province. Bleak and enormous old country houses, student rooms in the city, frozen forests and blossoming orchards alternate to provide the action with the enhancement of setting.

In [the novella] Three Travelers we move to Paris and into concert halls, theaters, and studios. The story concerns a young Spanish couple, Miguel and Montserrat, and a Viennese pianist, Johann, come to Paris to perform a Mozart concerto. It is a triangle with a tragic resolution.

But although the basic structures of fiction are still recognizable, they have been weakened and distorted to prevent any illusion of realistic dimension or true-to-life anecdote from distracting us from the author's intention. Without warning the...