From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Jun 25 11:31:34 1992
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From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: CLOVEN HOOVES by Megan Lindholm
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Date: 22 Jun 92 20:02:00 GMT
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                      CLOVEN HOOVES by Megan Lindholm
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

     I have to admit that the description of this book as being about a
woman who leaves her husband to go to live with a faun in the forest did not
make me want to run out and read it.  It sounded just a bit too "woodlands-
cutesy."  But a friend who knows me said that I might enjoy it--it wasn't
quite what I was thinking.

     Well, she was right that it wasn't woodlands-cutesy, and I think
Lindholm shows promise, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend the book.  The
problem is the characters--they are all one-dimensional (with the possible
exception of the main character, who avoids being one-dimensional only be
being a collection of quirks, "funny hats" in an almost literal sense, as
her clothes are a large part of her characterization).  Take the husband,
for example.  The whole point of his character is that he has no
independence--he functions only as an appendage of his family.  The son
seems present in the book only as a  plot device, not a fully realized
character.  Ironically, the faun is perhaps the most fully realized
character--ironic because he is the one whose nature is the least complex.
(Well, maybe it's not so ironic after all.)

     As far as the main character goes, she seems so spineless as to be
almost a non-entity.  She puts up with an unbelievable amount of emotional
abuse from her family and her husband's family until one day she just leaves
and runs off with the faun.  Now I'm sure that there are people who put up
with emotional abuse, so I can't say it's unrealistic, but I can say that to
me it was unconvincing.  Your mileage may vary.  (It shouldn't be necessary
to say that in a review, but my experience is that it is.)

     Maybe this is all a modern-day fairy tale and I should look more at the
meaning that at the characterization.  (How much personality did Snow White
have?)  There is a power in Lindholm's writing that kept me reading even
when I wanted to shake some life into the characters.  So I give CLOVEN
HOOVES a conditional recommendation.

%T      Cloven Hooves
%A      Megan Lindholm
%C      New York
%D      December 1991
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      paperback, US$4.99
%G      ISBN 0-553-29327-3
%P      360pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com