Not half as good as Myra, but not bad. Some clunkiness, but also lots of that precise bitchiness I so love Vidal for. Ending continues to disturb me - rape scene very well written.

Normally, I think every creative endeavor can be improved through the addition of gayness. But strangely, I think this book is much more engaging and winning when it is focusing on how the narrator's religion (they are fundamentalist Christians in 1960's England), isolates her and her mother from the rest of the world.

The gay coming out and being rejected by family and friends is so old and done. It bores me.

I like the fantasy story bits when they don't too directly parallel the events of the plot. When they're a little en point, they are overly obvious as a cute storytelling technique, rather than illuminating something one didn't already understand.

I really, really enjoyed this. Very clearly written, hilarious, devastating, woven so seamlessly into fairytale ... very sexy, very tragic.