A provocative romp that pits men against women and goddesses against God to remind us that lust is with us, maybe to the end...
When two Wiccan goddesses bring their unfettered sexuality and eco-feminist fervor to Atlantis Springs, Mont., the town’s ruling Christian patriarchy are unamused—until our witchy heroines expose what’s really going on under the local covers.
Anaya Godkin believes the world would be a healthier place if humans got over their bodily shame and men stopped contaminating and dominating the earth. Fired from her teaching position at a California university after instigating a nude protest against a biotech center, Anaya, along with her daughter, Naomi, head for eastern Montana, where they have inherited, of all things, a former house of ill repute. The two soon lock horns with the Priesthood, a cabal of biblically inspired yet brutal men, and attempt to liberate the town’s cowering children and sexually repressed wives from their shameful secrets and their twisted religious masters. Anaya the witch is not without heart, however, and soon embarks on a side mission to save one guilt-ridden minister from his conflicted nature and his moral hypocrisy. Torrid sex scenes alternate with philosophical reflections on the virtues of paganism and the repressive theologies that replaced it—to provocative, steamy effect. The author’s tarot deck may be overly stacked with cardboard villains and whores with hearts of gold, but her tale rips along as female avengers go about vanquishing stereotypical oppressors, among them Republicans, anti-abortionists and climate-change deniers. Meadowlark writes with ease and élan, paces her tale cleverly and doesn’t flinch from comparing today’s news about global warming to the Book of Revelation. In fact, she brings the Bible fully into the moral discussion, testing it critically against her dogged faith in Gaian wholeness and the healing powers of sacred sex. “What the world needs now,” she says, “are dangerous women, women who are moral enough to risk immorality.” This naughty novel takes those risks, with bite, craft and, of course, lots of sex.
A provocative romp that pits men against women and goddesses against God to remind us that lust is with us, maybe to the end of times.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-1460917121
Page Count: 412
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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