What if the poet Sappho had paused to tell the story of her life in the moment before her legendary leap from the cliff? Its a neat premise, and the grab bag of brilliant bits that is all we know of Sapphos life might, in defter hands, have been fashioned into shimmering whole cloth. Instead, we get a windy, chaotic tale, which owes more to Bob Gucciones Caligula than to classical scholarship (sample chapter headings: Aesop at the Orgy,The Binding of the Babe). Jong cant resist turning Sappho into a sandal-shod Isadora Wing, careering from one rapt, cartoonish embrace to another while occasionally crooning verses that as an imitation of Sapphos ravishing, elusive poetry are hopelessly inadequate.