Janice Dawley wrote:
>I believe you mean _Waking the Moon_. I read it last summer and was quite
>disappointed. I absolutely loved Hand's earlier novel _Winterlong_, and was
>hoping for something as good -- instead I found a heavy-handed (and much
>too lengthy) saga whose earthshaking insight was that women can be really
>evil. The faces of Kali, Othiym, whatever -- how new is it to symbolize
>women as either devourers or saints? I kept hoping that she would attempt
>to stretch the boundaries of gender definitions and portray something new,
>but my persistence was not rewarded. Frankly, I was amazed that this novel
>won the Tiptree award. Anyone have insight as to why? Or can anyone show me
>how I'm wrong in my reading of the novel?
Actually, I felt that none of the characters (female or male) were truly
evil. In some instances I actually felt for the so-called "evil"
characters. The question is were the Benandanti the villains in this
novel, or were the followers of Othiym? Or was it just a titanic power
struggle between two villains, neither of which deserved to win?
Erik
Erik Tsao
Graduate Student
Department of English
Wayne State University
Detroit, MI
"The naked Senses sometimes see too little -- but then _always_ they see
too much."
--Edgar Allan Poe
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