Word: castleton
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sioux certainly deserves that, if only as a tribute to reckless originality. A stranger tale and an odder telling would be hard to confect. Vincent Castleton, 43, an English banker in New Orleans, has married Marguerite Benoir, also known as Mim or Mimi to the handful of people on earth she regards as equals. These include most of the Benoirs, an impossibly rich and haughty French clan whose members call themselves the Sioux, perhaps as a tribute to their own ferocity. Mim, in her mid-20s, has led a luxurious but troubled life. Her first marriage, to Cousin Georges Benoir...
...child speaks a bewildering mixture of French and "Ol' Kintuck," the hayseed dialect he absorbed during his brief exposure to Governor Davis' three strapping sons: "O, he jest being plain bad. O, il m'echappe toujours!" All the Sioux are holding their breath to see how George takes to Castleton. Armand reassures his brother-in-law: "The Dauphin has a truly terrifying sense of gratitude. You'll be annihilated by it, my poor Vince. Nothing can stand up against this terrible, slow gratitude of the Dauphin...
...Castleton is indeed unsettled by the shrieking, weeping and effusively loving behavior of this weird child. "Shut up, darling," he pleads during one attempt to comfort the little lad, who is, Castleton decides, "Pure Gold and all that, but inconceivably maddening." Worse, the new husband begins to take the true measure of his wife, who not only treats her servants as if feudalism still reigned and slavery had never been abolished but who hectors her semi-invalid son unmercifully: "Drink your porto and try and get a little color in your face for a change." She will make...
...shoved into an especially deracinated cocktail party. But the fun grows a bit forced over the long haul; even the most bizarre conversations cannot forever hide the fact that not much of substance is happening. Handl's people are splendidly funny because they all, with the possible exception of Castleton, are permanently set in their absurd ways. Not much room is left over for suspense. A little more forward momentum might have made The Sioux a minor classic. As it now stands, or careens, the novel is a curiosity tres chic...