The Hermit of 69th Street should end the controversy over Kosinski's skill with language and whether or not editors collaborated on his novels.

There is a distinctive stamp to all Kosinski's work. In each novel his central character follows a path from victim to oppressor. Kosinski never provides moral guidelines for his readers. His characters keep their judgments and feelings to themselves. For the most part, the novels are episodic in structure, usually containing a revenge motif and plenty of kinky sex. And as almost every critic has observed, Kosinski's original metaphor of the painted bird is central to all his fiction.

The Hermit of 69th Street displays the features of Kosinski's other novels.

However, whereas his previous five novels were somewhat derivative, this novel breaks new ground. Kosinski has created a wholly original stream-ofconsciousness-like effect by having his central character and himself as editor collaborate...