The Fresco

Starred review from October 30, 2000
HSo what do women really, really want? Elementary, Dr. Freud, according to Tepper's enchantingly sly feminist tale of Earthlings' first contact with alien starfarers: nothing that "virile, arbitrary, egocentric, and often belligerent" human males can supply. Abused wife to a feckless alcoholic, orphaned child of a wise Latina lady and her salvage-yard husband, Benita Alvarez-Shipton finds herself at 36 chosen by Chiddy and Vess, ambassadors from the galactic Pistach-Home, to introduce their message of peace to a largely skeptical, male-dominated U.S. government. Tepper intersperses episodes of Benita's struggle to help Chiddy and Vess with entries from the journal Chiddy keeps for her, an explanation of the Pistach moral-ethical religion centered upon a sacred fresco. To punctuate the many wrongs men in charge have committed, Tepper also inserts some headlines excruciatingly close to today's political scene: "Baptists claim ETs possible demonic invasion; Falwell says ETs more likely gay." Among other fitting punishments, the Pistach envoys see to it that rigid male right-to-life senators are impregnated by sentient wasps, whose larvae chew themselves out of righteous, unanesthetized senatorial bellies. As a clever roman clef and the stuff of secret female dreams, this novel succeeds brilliantly. Better yet, as a commentary on the capacity of women to endure, to achieve and to overcome, it shines as brightly as the stars that one day may provide what Tepper's women really wantDtrue peace. Tepper's novel will sell to wide range of SF readers, but special targeting to women, for instance in feminist bookstores, will increase sales.

October 15, 2000
Benita Alvarez-Shipton faces an unorthodox midlife crisis when alien visitors choose her as their liaison with Earth's authorities and provide her with the means to take her destiny into her own hands in the process. The author of Six Moon Dance demonstrates her limitless ability to extract wonder and ingenuity from the lives of ordinary people faced with extraordinary situations. Tepper's talent for creating believable human and alien characters lends power and credibility to her work and makes her a convincing portrayer of sociologically oriented sf. Recommended for most sf collections.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.