Subject: BEAUTY by Sheri S. Tepper

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: 11 Aug 92 23:56:16 GMT

BEAUTY by Sheri S. Tepper
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

     In BEAUTY, Tepper takes all those happy fairy tales and shows us the
dark underside (or the dark truth, if you prefer).  The title character is
not the Beauty of "Beauty and the Beast," but Sleeping Beauty--or rather,
would be except for an odd turn of fate in which she escapes the enchatment
(well, a novel in which the main character sleeps the whole time wouldn't be
very exciting--and yes, I've read "Rip Van Winkle").  After she escapes,
Beauty latches on to some time travelers, goes to the future, has some
unpleasant adventures, travels back to our present, has even more unpleasant
adventures, travels to the Land of Faery, has ... well, you get the idea.

     Tepper has some good ideas but her execution of them frequently leaves
something to be desired.  Everything will be flowing along when suddenly she
will break into a strident pro-choice speech (or more accurately, an anti-
anti-choice speech).  She also appears to be claiming that all the graphic
violence we see and read about deadens us to it.  I don't deny that this
view may have some merit, but I think she shoots herself in the foot by
using the Holocaust as an example: according to Beauty, people are so
determined to prevent another Holocaust that they keep harping on the
"first" one until no one cares.  But it wasn't the first, and ignoring
previous ones didn't do much to prevent or temper this one, so it's not
clear that the reminding will or even can make things worse.

     BEAUTY is full of enough unlikely coincidences and dire happenings,
some of them telegraphed to the reader, to read like a latter-day MOLL
FLANDERS.  But Tepper has not mastered a light touch yet, and her messages
get delivered with a resounding thud.  For its injection of realism into the
realm of fairy tale, BEAUTY is interesting, but it ultimately disappoints.

%A      Tepper, Sheri S.
%T      Beauty
%I      Bantam Spectra
%C      New York
%D      1990
%O      paperback, US$5.99 [April 1992]
%G      ISBN 0-553-29527-6
%P      463pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]