Stalemate — Ilarion Contrescu

STALEMATE

a novel by Mara Rotundo

Stalemate is a psychological chamber piece that weaves high psychodrama into an exact dissection of society.

It employs a romantic quadrangle as a case study for cultural narcissism, rendered through a compassionate lens of psychoanalytical realism. Its baroque satire is sweetened with pathos.

Cinematic plot points and dazzling visual scenes are anchored in a moral and aesthetic register drawn from mid-century European tradition; Stalemate examines the hypnotism of intellectual and erotic deception, and labyrinth of interpersonal relationships under the magnifying glass of lockdown.

“ When her intrepid black eyes sunk their blade into his pudding face, a champagne cork popped somewhere. The earth's rotation took a hit, the magnetic poles confused each other. She felt him melt, and he let her feel it. ”

“ It was like a new religion, where up was down, and left was right; a religion of excess, people victims of their own evolutionary success.”

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