Readers of "Ararat," D. M. Thomas's new novel, will recognize its similarities to his earlier "The White Hotel."… To many critics "The White Hotel" seemed an unusual and major work, attempting to treat the largest subjects of our time—World War II, its relation to modern consciousness as described by Freud, and the implications of Freud for the writer of fiction—through the story of a young woman patient of Freud. "Ararat" shares these preoccupations—in particular the Freudian conjunction of sexuality and death; this time they are approached through the story of Cleopatra and her lovers and in the reminiscences of a mysterious figure, encountered on a dreamlike sea voyage, who obsessively recounts his part in all of the terrible massacres of modern history. Like the earlier work, "Ararat" provides an abundant display of the author's astonishing virtuosity in poetry, in prose, in translating—a writer combining...