Under Venus

America in the late 1960s — a turbulent sea of change. Most Americans find themselves buffeted by winds of turmoil or swept away in the currents of destiny, and history. And Elliot Denmark, brilliant composer and expatriate, returns home to find himself in the eye of the storm. Back in his Midwest hometown, Elliot is caught between the urgent claims of the past and the conflicting, confusingly uncertain demands of art, morality, family, and his own divided emotions. Like vivid dreams, other people’s stories invade and enrich his life, and like dreams they suggest a powerful but enigmatic meaning. Under the light of Venus, nothing is as it once was, nothing is as it seems. A political issue divides the city; a haunting old love commandingly reasserts itself; enemies old and new assail Elliot on all sides. Along with the rest of America, Elliot Denmark must make the choices that will define the rest of his life. Subtly shaded and ripely evocative, Peter Straub’s long unavailable second novel resonates with the gothic impulses he would soon acknowledge as his own and develop into mastery. Straub’s legion of fans will be delighted by this early demonstration of his capacity for brilliant prose and dazzling imaginative complexity. UNDER VENUS is an unsettling novel of an unsettling time that, on its merits as the work of a young writer hell-bent on finding his voice, richly deserves restoration to print.