Madeleine Austrian by Robert R. Kirsch

second novel (In the Wrong Rain- Little, Brown) is again a story of extramarital entanglements, casual sophistication and even looser morals, and presents Madeleine Austrian, 32, bored with her husband- Kenneth, bothered about her age, and childless. A sterile woman, Madeleine can only be stimulated by stimulating artistic men and this need to be creative- if only vicariously- has destructive results. Kenneth after their marriage could no longer paint- and became a lawyer. Now through his younger cousin Richard, a writer, she hopes to inspire a book, and she withholds herself until the work in progress is achieved. But there are other men- to injure Ken- and Richard- and finally only a sculptor, Mendoza, is strong enough to survive her. This may not however be true of the reader who may tire in this climate of torment.