From Publishers Weekly
Little is straightforward in this fictional work that is neither novel nor short story collection. In each chapter a different voice addresses an issue related to aesthetics, nature or both. Some of Belben's ideas are intelligible. She prefers the beauty of anarchic growth to that of a pruned garden: `` . . . sweet peas are lovely without going to the hairdresser.'' Her compassion for dogs imparts an almost eerie comprehension of their thoughts, without seeming like a Disney story, and the odd prose can strike a powerful chord, as in: ``All my ideas have no wings. They are salami.'' But some anthropomorphic descriptions of plants border on sentimental (``Why must cabbages grow in rows, why may they not put themselves where they please . . .''), and, overall, the nontraditional elements obfuscate. Omission of some punctuation and vowels, arbitrary use of capital letters and a hodge-podge of seemingly unconnected statements contribute to a thickening of the literary arteries. As the author says (in reference to a purple cardigan), `` . . . it's all much of a muchness.'' This is the first of the British writer's works to be published here.
Copyright 1991 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
This unique novel contains many voices. Each self-contained chapter reveals a different kind of voice and so a certain kind of personality which makes its presence felt, in a manner both witty and innocent, mournful and ironic.
