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Sabbath’s Theater 181
establishing her as a character in her own right rather than his puppet.
She also, encouraged by Sabbath, takes on a string of additional lovers,
one of them not only married, but with a pregnant wife at home
(certainly another broken taboo), reporting back, in detail, to Sabbath
(34–36, 66–68, 74–76).
Debra Shostak describes Drenka as a character who is not quite
objectified: while she is indeed an object of Sabbath’s sexual desires,
and his pupil both in sex and the English language, she is also too
alive to be an object: Sabbath is transfixed by her, can’t leave her, and
allows her to control him. She is her own agent in respect to sex, but,
as Shostak continues, in the end her insistence on independence from
him is not about sex but language (Shostak, 56). Drenka’s voice is
distinctly different from Sabbath’s, and while he coaches her in American
idioms (misinforming her intentionally, at times), she retains the
voice of a Croatian immigrant until the end. In the scenes just before
she dies in the hospital, Sabbath sneaks in (“It’s not allowed, but it
is allowed if the nurse allows it,” 415) to see her, to speak to her: “I’d
show up, we’d talk, I’d sit and watch her breathing through that open
mouth” (416). Only the talking remains. Her language is confused,
both by the foreign accent and by the morphine she is given, but
in contrast to all other relationships, here Drenka and Sabbath are
equals—it is their shared memories that define the relationship, and
Drenka retains control of her identity, her language, until her death.
Reliving a shared memory, her accent even transfers to Sabbath, and
she teases him: “ ‘But then it came the full stuff ’? You are talking like
me! I have made you speak translated Croatian! I taught you, too!”
“You sure did,” Sabbath agrees (426). In another instance, Sabbath
uses one of her phrases (“It takes two to tangle”) in conversation with
Norman’s wife Michelle, showing the presence of her language in
his after her death (335). Drenka is Sabbath’s valiant collaborator, in
language as much as in his taboo-breaking ventures, much more so
than Nikki or Roseanna could ever have been. Thus the loss of Drenka
prompts Sabbath’s descent towards madness (Omer-Sherman 170) as
his performance disintegrates.
Everyone around Sabbath becomes part of Sabbath’s dramatic
performance, and the drama teeters on the verge of insanity. Sabbath
only barely controls himself and often fails to control those around
him. Mark Shechner has described the novel as a “nervous breakdown”
(Shechner 146)—indeed, Sabbath deteriorates mentally and