A hit and two misses by novelist, poet, and journalist Harrison (Dalva, 1988; Legends of the Fall, 1979). These three novellas contrast the chaos of so-called civilization, signified by the havoc wreaked by the wantonness of the human libido, against the brutal yet orderly simplicity of nature. In the title piece, Julip tries to get her brother Bobby declared mentally incompetent and freed from prison, where he has been sent after shooting her three lovers. Although Julip willingly had sex with each of the victims, Bobby, who harbors sexual feelings for his sister, claims that he was only avenging his sister's defilement. Julip, a dog trainer, has long used her physical attractiveness to get what she wants, yet she is only truly at peace when she is among the animals she loves at her farm in rural Wisconsin. Overall, ``Julip'' is a nonstop joy ride of a read as the vibrant protagonist travels from Wisconsin to Florida using all of her considerable charm to spring her loved one from jail. More ponderous is ``The Seven-Ounce Man,'' about an errant Indian named Brown Dog, a character first introduced in Harrison's The Woman Lit By fireflies. Brown Dog is torn between his political principles and his libidinal and alcoholic impulses. Harrison is less effective when he forgoes plot and dialogue and lets his characters introspectively pontificate on the vagaries of human nature, as Brown Dog does here. The third novella, ``The Beige Dolorosa,'' is about a professor who traumatically loses his job over accusations of sexual harassment. Moving unwillingly to Arizona, the protagonist eventually finds the kind of spiritual fulfillment that has eluded him all of his life, yet not before one last, potentially disastrous flush of sexual desire. More philosophical than plot-driven, this last novella is the most blandly written; the more intellectual potential Harrison's characters possess, the less interesting they are. Hedonists, beware, Harrison seems to be saying; unchecked sexual desire leads to incest, infidelity, and prostitution. Mother Nature, on the other hand, offers a spiritual connection to an animal instinct untainted by modern neuroses. Like most people, Harrison's characters are caught right in the middle.
Pub Date: April 29, 1994
ISBN: 0-395-48885-0
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.
A retelling of ancient Greek lore gives exhilarating voice to a witch.
“Monsters are a boon for gods. Imagine all the prayers.” So says Circe, a sly, petulant, and finally commanding voice that narrates the entirety of Miller’s dazzling second novel. The writer returns to Homer, the wellspring that led her to an Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles (2012). This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs. The novel, with its distinctive feminist tang, starts with the sentence: “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.” Readers will relish following the puzzle of this unpromising daughter of the sun god Helios and his wife, Perse, who had negligible use for their child. It takes banishment to the island Aeaea for Circe to sense her calling as a sorceress: “I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began.” This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety. She makes lovers of Hermes and then two mortal men. She midwifes the birth of the Minotaur on Crete and performs her own C-section. And as she grows in power, she muses that “not even Odysseus could talk his way past [her] witchcraft. He had talked his way past the witch instead.” Circe’s fascination with mortals becomes the book’s marrow and delivers its thrilling ending. All the while, the supernatural sits intriguingly alongside “the tonic of ordinary things.” A few passages coil toward melodrama, and one inelegant line after a rape seems jarringly modern, but the spell holds fast. Expect Miller’s readership to mushroom like one of Circe’s spells.
Miller makes Homer pertinent to women facing 21st-century monsters.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-55634-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
PROFILES
A modern day fable, with modern implications in a deceiving simplicity, by the author of Dickens. Dali and Others (Reynal & Hitchcock, p. 138), whose critical brilliance is well adapted to this type of satire. This tells of the revolt on a farm, against humans, when the pigs take over the intellectual superiority, training the horses, cows, sheep, etc., into acknowledging their greatness. The first hints come with the reading out of a pig who instigated the building of a windmill, so that the electric power would be theirs, the idea taken over by Napoleon who becomes topman with no maybes about it. Napoleon trains the young puppies to be his guards, dickers with humans, gradually instigates a reign of terror, and breaks the final commandment against any animal walking on two legs. The old faithful followers find themselves no better off for food and work than they were when man ruled them, learn their final disgrace when they see Napoleon and Squealer carousing with their enemies... A basic statement of the evils of dictatorship in that it not only corrupts the leaders, but deadens the intelligence and awareness of those led so that tyranny is inevitable. Mr. Orwell's animals exist in their own right, with a narrative as individual as it is apt in political parody.
Pub Date: Aug. 26, 1946
ISBN: 0452277507
Page Count: 114
Publisher: Harcourt, Brace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1946
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