THE SEVENTH HORSE

by Leonora Carrington ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 29, 1988

More stories by Carrington (see above), newly translated by Kathrine Talbot and Anthony Kerrigan, though without the support of an introduction that might shed light on the writer's symbolic menagerie and biography, which inform so many of the strange goings-on in this book. Morsels from Carrington's prewar period feature dainty heroines with names like Hevalino and Engadine undergoing thinly veiled sexual initiations (e.g., a union between Virginia Fur and the king of the forest, a beautiful boar; or a girl who gets to know her Parisian neighbor, a keeper of meat-eating rabbits). Another, ""The Skeleton's Holiday,"" seems a fantasy send-up of the French man-about-town, here a skeleton who brushes his teeth and visits fortunetellers. Carrington's novella, The Stone Door, tells the story of a quest undertaken by the boy, Zacharias, to enter the country of the Dead, and reads like a hashish dream. And her Mexican stories focus on religion and myth; one selection is a dialogue between Montezuma and the Archbishop of Canterbury, who gradually learns that he's to be cooked and served for dinner--even though, as Montezuma explains, ""you whites are so lax in ritual bathing that your flesh, even after repeated immersion in spices and pulque, is far too coarse for good eating."" Most of the stories here are far too obscure for the uninitiated, though they may send the surrealists among us into backflips.

Pub Date: Aug. 29, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION