FICTION

DAEMON IN LITHUANIA by Henri Guigonnat, translated by Barbara Wright (New Directions: $14). A large cat appears in the attic of a Neo-Gothic castle in the wilds of Lithuania early in this century and proceeds to run the lives of the inmates and visitors. (But of course, as every true cat fancier knows, all cats run their masters’ lives.) This particular great She-Cat is quite at home with this castle of strange eccentrics who would be comfortable populating Edward Gorey drawings. Henri Guigonnat has created an original little fantasy--strange, aloof, bizarre, but very entertaining. Part Charles Addams and part Eastern European folk tale, “Daemon in Lithuania” comes appropriately smothered in thick and suffocating snowstorms, black primeval forests, colorful peasants and the last remnants of the aristocracy, who wear crinolines and bustles and may harbor a vampire or two.