Alena, by Rachel Pastan

“Last night I dreamed of Nauquesset again.”  So begins Alena, an homage to Daphne Du Maurier’s beloved Rebecca.  Like Rebecca, Alena is dead, leaving a shattered world behind her.  She had been the curator of a quirky and unconventional museum, located in a remote area of Cape Cod.  After her death, Bernard Augustin, the Maxim de Winter-like owner of the museum, meets the young and naïve narrator, who like that of Rebecca, remains nameless, at the Venice Bienniale.  She is only too glad to ditch Louise, the demanding old curator of a Midwestern museum who has brought here there when Bernard offers her the chance to reopen the Nauk.  The character of Mrs. Danvers is well-filled by Agnes, the bookkeeper.  But much of the novel is really about art, what it is, what it isn’t.  Enjoyable even without the echoes.  308 pp.