In a customer review it is characterized as a “unfinished children’s story”, and its publication in Light from a Lone Star “clearly is intended more for scholars of Vance’s work than for his fans”. Foreverness calls it “First chapter and outline of unfinished novel” (ref. 1, 2).

Summary on jackvance.com:

While in Rome, art student Chuck Musgrave is offered a job painting pictures of Positano, a picturesque town south of Naples. When Chuck arrives in Positano, strange things begin to happen. It becomes clear that not all foreigners living in Positano are there for the scenery!

Foreverness writes that the book was written during Vance’s second stay in Positano (below Napels, Italy), in 1957. [ref]

Republished as Strange People, Queer Notions, Spatterlight, 2012

Comment:

Originally published in a limited edition. (ref)

Quotes:

Betty laughed self-consciously. “Just a little hair-pulling. Nothing serious.” In retrospect the fight seemed almost fun. There had been a wide-open sensation, a wildness and abandon, that she had never known before.

Betty went to the other side of the deck, sank into a chair, sat looking across the wind-whipped sea. Everything was gray: the sky, the sea, the ship. She thought of home, the cheerful green and white house under the oak trees; the familiar living room, the comfortable chairs, the book shelves, the fireplace. Fervently she wished she were there.

Republished by Spatterlight, The Dark Ocean, 2012