Subject: THE FAMILY TREE by Sheri S. Tepper

From: "Michael I. Lichter" <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 May 1998 10:16:28 -0400

THE FAMILY TREE by Sheri S. Tepper
           Avon EOS, May 1998, ISBN 0-380-79197-8, 492pp, US$6.99
		Review Copyright 1998 Michael I. Lichter

What in the world is happening? Trees are sprouting up everywhere. The
suburbs are being swallowed, and the men who try to hold back the
burgeoning forest are found mysteriously poisoned, dead or dying.
Policewoman Dora Henry, an unhappily married thirty-five year old virgin,
welcomes the change of scenery as strongly as her husband Jared [*]
detests it. Is there any connection between mother nature's rampage and
the handful of strange murders Dora is investigating?

They call that a leading question. Of course there is, and I'm not going
to tell you. It does have something to do with Jared's childhood
involvement with the strange goat-like family living down the block. It
does have something to do with Dora's fear that weeds and pigs are talking
to her. It does have something to do with a slave girl called Opalears,
her princely owner, and the journey they embark upon in an earth very
unlike our own.

Tepper fans know that she loves to spring disorienting surprises on her
readers, and this new novel is full of them. Tepper's biting humor also
permeates the book, as does an ongoing war between her optimism and
pessimism. Her usual themes, e.g., the corruption of institutionalized
religion, the oppression of women by power-hungry men, and the arrogance
of humanity towards the natural world, are also all here. In other words,
this is a characteristic Tepper novel. THE FAMILY TREE is to humanity's
relationship with nature what her novel THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY
(recommended) was to human gender relations -- which is to say that she
pushes things way past the breaking point and then plays around with the
remaining shards.

The first 320 pages of FAMILY TREE contain some of the finest material
Tepper has ever written. The language is rich, poignant and funny, the
storytelling compelling.  Unfortunately, once Tepper's hidden agenda
surfaces about two-thirds of the way through, she turns preachy (well,
*more* preachy) and starts resolving plot threads in a contrived manner.

The denouement may leave you wondering whether Tepper might not be tried
for Crimes Against Humanity some day, another resemblance to THE GATE TO
WOMEN'S COUNTRY, but it is unlikely to leave you indifferent.

If the last third of THE FAMILY TREE was as good as most of the first
two-thirds, it would be a classic. As it stands, it is an entertaining
read, and recommended to all Tepper-philes and newcomers.  Tepper-phobes
can safely skip.

	%A	Sheri S. Tepper
	%T	The Family Tree
	%I	Avon EOS
	%C	New York
	%D	May 1998
	%G	ISBN 0-380-79197-8
	%P	492pp.
	%O	paperback, US$6.99

[*] This is the second novel I've read since NBC's "Pretender" debuted on
TV which has featured a primary character named Jared; the other is Sharon
Shinn's THE ALLELUIA FILES.  Removing almost all doubt about a link, one
chapter is entitled "The Pretender," which is not to say that Dora's Jared
is in any way like the TV character.