Mrs. Demming and the Mythical Beast

by Faith Sullivan

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812525981
• ISBN13: 9780812525984
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 407 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Highly Original, Very Provocative

The "beast" in question is Pan, the goat-legged god of classical Greek mythology. He may exist. He may be a figment of Larissa Demming's imagination, a product of her tortured psyche. Mrs. Demming is a fascinating character, and this novel manages to give us a startlingly intimate glimpse into her soul without ever being sensationalistic. (Let's just say that Larissa has a rather unusual relationship history.) Shades of Erica Jong, whom I love.

A Great Novel On a Potent Theme

Although this is flowing, lyrical narrative, it will have difficulties for many readers. This is not a fantasy, but anyone reading the reviews here would get the idea that it is. This is a psychological novel about a woman dealing with a great crisis in her life. I will avoid spoiling the story, but it will not take the astute reader long to realize where the "mythical beast" really lives and what it represents. Larissa is a middle-aged wife and mother at a point where she is floating free of the world that has anchored her for years. Our concern as a reader who cares for her is whether or not Larissa will understand the mythical beast as well as we begin to. The points author Faith Sullivan makes about the impact of the real subject are right on, and the metaphor of the Mythical Beast is so perfect one wonders why it has not been used before. The story is provocative and does not go where most readers would expect it to. To this reviewer, the conclusion and how Larissa arrives there, had the feeling of Truth. Only a reader's own bias or lack of openness would fault the path the story takes. An excellent book, by an excellent, sensitive story-teller. If you enjoy this book, you should delight in the quartet that follows it: The Cape Ann, The Emperor of One, What A Woman Must Do, and Gardenias.

HOT PARANORMAL!GREEK SATYR PAN.........

THIS WAS A SURPRISINGLY FRESH,SENSUOUS,NEAR EROTIC READ OF A HUMAN WOMAN AND THE SATYR PAN!AN EXHILARATING,PROVOCATIVE AND WHIMSICAL NOVEL WITH COMEDY AND GRIPPING ROMANTIC FANTASY DRAMA. ON THE SURFACE LARISSA DEMMING IS A HAPPILY MARRIED WOMAN.SHE DABBLES IN WATERCOLORS,INDULGES HER HUSBAND,A PREOCCUPIED PROFESSOR, AND WORRIES ABOUT HER ALARMINGLY PRACTICAL CHILDREN.SHE IS INDIFFERENT TO ANYTHING THAT WOULD EXPOSE HER TRUE FEELINGS.THAT IS ,UNTIL A WALK ALONG THE RIVER FRONT NEAR HER MIDWESTERN HOME BRINGS HER FACE TO FACE WITH THE SENSUOUS SATYR PAN.IT IS PAN WHO AT LAST UNLEASHES HER LONG DORMANT SEXUALITY AND FREES HER TO CONFRONT HER SECRET DESIRES AND HER HIDDEN PAST.........