SOURCE: West, Ray B., Jr. “The Unities of Modern Fiction.” Kenyon Review 17, no. 2 (spring 1955): 326-29.

In the following excerpted review of several new novels, West says that Nemerov's Federigo, or the Power of Love has a good deal of wit but is too heavy-handed and surrealistic.

Howard Nemerov's Federigo, or the Power of Love, contains more skill of execution than David Wagoner's novel [The Man in the Middle], and it is unmistakably comic. Given a modern setting, it is nevertheless, as its old-fashioned title suggests, consciously based on the medieval fabliau. Essentially, it is the story of Julian Ghent's attempt to provide a situation where he, approaching middle-age, may be untrue to his wife, Sylvia. This he does by writing letters to himself implying his wife's unfaithfulness and signing them Federigo, the name of a little-known acquaintance. He is moved to this act, not by the attraction of...