Second Skin (1964) continues to be one of Hawkes's most widely read novels, its rich and allusive narrative texture making it conducive to continued study. Like The Lime Twig, it teems with death and nightmarish events; yet unlike its predecessor, this fourth novel contains, as Hawkes has emphasized, much that is "affirmative" as a story of "the life-force versus death."

As its main theme, the struggle between life and death informs the plot, the setting, the use of characterization, and the structure of the novel.

In fact, so dependent is each of these on the novel's theme that Second Skin provides an excellent example of artistic unity and tension. The magnetic pull toward death is countered by the Skipper's efforts to save his daughter Cassandra from suicide (he fails) and at the same time to renew his own bungled life (he succeeds), both of these providing the...