Tanya Wood wrote:
>
>Has anyone read the Charnas book "The Furies"-
> I believe it is the third in the "Motherlines" trilogy. I remember that
> she took a very long time indeed to write it and she aimed to reconcile
> the horsewomen and the society of Holdfast in this book. The fact that it
> is called 'The Furies" and features a furious looking female
> warrior on the cover might indicate that it has failed in her aim of
> heterosexual reconciliation.
>
I read _The Furies_ when it first came out a few years ago (so it's a
little fuzzy in my memory). She did indeed take a long time to write
it. There was a gap of more than a decade between Furies and the book
preceding it. Interestingly enough, it's a real time gap in the story
as well. (That is, Furies takes place 15 or so years after the previous
book.) I heard Charnas say at a convention that she needed all that
time before she could write the third book, incorporating all the
changes in society in that time. Furies reflects this. _Walk to the
End of the World_ and _Motherlines_ showcase more of the late '70s
rejection of and anger against the patriarchy. In Furies, the main
character is trying to go back and change her culture rather than
totally reject it.
During the long gap between _Motherlines_ and _The Furies_, Charnas
wrote her wonderful YA trilogy (_The Bronze Glove_, _The Silver King_,
and something with gold in it, as I recall). I thought these were
really super books with a very believable teenage character who lives
with her divorced mother in a realistic relationship.
Berni Phillips
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