From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Apr 17 00:08:53 2000 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!newsfeed1.telenordia.se!news.algonet.se!algonet!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!news.gtei.net!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu From: "Aaron M. Renn" Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Subject: Review: The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson Organization: GNU's Not Unix! Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-to: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 12 Apr 2000 17:20:38 -0400 Message-ID: X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4 Lines: 52 NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 955574480 21253 18.85.23.65 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2683 The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson Review Copyright (c) 2000 Aaron M. Renn Conclusion: Worth Reading - In Paperback [ A minor SPOILER near the end of this review that gives a feel for the general type of ending the story has ] This is another hardcover I bought on a lark because I was feeling properous after a big runup in my stocks. Well, now my net worth is about half what it was two weeks ago, and if I had things to do it all over today, I probably wouldn't have picked it up. After having read The Fox Woman, I'm afraid I probably shouldn't have done it last month either. It's not that this book is bad, just that it's not $25 good. This is a Japanese fairy tale set in some sort of medieval period I don't recognize. A minor out-of-favor nobleman and his wife retreat to the countryside and are beset by foxes. The wife dreads them, fearing legends about how fox magic lures humans to their doom. The husband longs to be like them, free of the burdens of his unhappy life. Unbeknownst to both of them, one of the foxes - a young female - is falling desperately in love with the husband. I was initially quite enchanted by the Japanese setting. Japan is an interesting culture that I don't know much about, particularly pre-modern times. I have no way to judge whether this book faithfully represents it or not, but I feel like I got a few insights out of reading it. Unfortunately, the book is really too long for the story that is told. This sort of bizarre love triangle tale could have been done as a novella. I personally think this would have been a very strong 40,000 word story. A couple hundred pages into it, I just kept thinking to myself, "Ok, get to the point". But the ending was a big positive for me. No happily ever afters here. Just real life complexity and ambiguity and a hope for a better tomorrow. The Fox Woman is worth buying in paperback, but isn't a must read. %A Johnson, Kij %T The Fox Woman %I Tor %D 2000-01 %G ISBN 0-312-85429-3 %P 382 pp. %O hardcover, US$24.95 Reviewed on 2000-04-06 -- Aaron M. Renn (arenn@urbanophile.com) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/