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Title: Grass by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0-553-76246-X Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.48 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Engaging and imaginative, but lacking in religious insight
Comment: Grass is unquestionably first-rate science fiction: a well-crafted story of engaging ideas and characters in a vividly imagined universe. The book is almost worth reading solely for its exceptionally imaginative world and ecosystems -- easily in the same league as Dune and the Helliconia series. I'd begun to lose interest in science fiction, but Grass reminded me of just how engrossing the genre can be.
So why a rating of 7? One of my pet peeves about science fiction is its frequent ignorance in religious matters, and Grass is at times yet another example of this. It's not simply that Tepper tells some theological "whoppers" (e.g. her explanation of original sin), but that her insight never goes beyond the superficial. The central characters are supposedly devoted "Old Catholics," yet Tepper's portrayal of their "faith" never gets any deeper than the typical pasteboard cutout stereotypes. When the idea of a postmodern-type nihilist group was introduced and their motive discussed, I began to wonder if I'd underestimated her insightfulness, but it proved a false hope when later the group turned out to be nothing more than stereotypical crazed religious fanatics who were in fact anything but nihilistic. None of this might matter if not for two things: 1) Religious issues have a central place in the story, so a superficial understanding of them is not a trivial flaw; and 2) Since a turning point in the story is a character's faith being shaken, having that faith be totally insubstantial is a serious strain on believability.
The bottom line: A first-rate read, but with some flaws in its religious facets.
Rating: 5
Summary: A classic -- still her best novel.
Comment: ______________________________________________
"Grass! Millions of square miles of it... a hundred rippling oceans,
each ripple a gleam of scarlet or amber, emerald or turquoise... the
colors shivering over the prairies... Sapphire seas of grass with dark
islands of grass bearing great plumy trees which are grass again."
So opens Grass, Sheri Tepper's first fully-successful novel and
perhaps still her best. When I first read Grass, I realised that Tepper is
a genuine wild talent, taking SF in new and unexpected directions.
If you've read any Tepper, you'll have noticed that she takes a pretty
dim view of human nature, especially among men -- and of religion,
especially patriarchal religion. The standard Tepper themes are here --
of course, they weren't standard back then -- but handled lightly and
thoughtfully, with only a bit of the didactic ham-fistedness that mars
some of her later books. What I didn't remember about Grass is the
splendid sense of place she evokes -- Grass emerges as a fully-formed,
beautiful, and thoroughly alien world. The formative image of Grass,
to the Colorado-born & raised Tepper, is that of the American Great
Plains after a good spring, which is indeed an oceanic experience --
one that your Oklahoma-raised reviewer has shared, and misses.
Sanctity, the noxious world-religion of Tepper's Earth, is explicitly
modelled on Mormonism. Mormon readers ('saints') will not be
flattered -- though Tepper has exaggerated for effect. Sanctity is not
nice. At times it verges on cartoonish, but then I would reflect on the
banality of evil.... Tepper does a good job, handling evil. Beauty (1991)
is her masterwork of evil -- a remarkable book, but not for the
squeamish. "Down, down, to Happy Land..." Ugh.
The Hippae aren't nice, either. Neither are the Hounds, another
Grassian species she introduces in the Hunt, and splendidly develops
as the novel progresses. I've seen criticism of Grass's ecology, but to
this non-biologist it seems reasonably sound, certainly good enough
for fictional background.
The extreme isolation and strange behavior of Grass's rural
aristocracy are again drawn from Tepper's Western experience. Larry
McMurtry has written eloquently of just how strange isolated
pioneers could get [note 1], and I remember similar stories from
Oklahoma. Tepper, McMurtry and other senior Westerners (like me)
are just one lifetime distant from the frontier...
Marjorie Westriding -- besides having a wonderful name, and a
remarkably irritating husband -- remains Tepper's most memorable
character. The NY Times says she's "one of the most interesting and
likable heroines in modern science fiction." Well, "me too."
Westriding appears in two more of Tepper's books, but is far less
memorable in those (sigh). But she's *great* here.
The Great Plague, ah, that's where the dodgy biology lies, and it's a
pretty contrived Maguffin, too. And the wrap-up gets a little mooshy
and pat. But these are quibbles. I had a great time re-reading Grass,
and you will, too. Highly recommended.
______________________
Note 1.) -- in his recent essay collection, Walter Benjamin at the
Dairy Queen (highly recommended), and in almost all of his
historical novels. Of course, many of the pioneers were pretty strange
to start with....
Review copyright 2002 by Peter D. Tillman
Rating: 4
Summary: Science-Fiction with a message
Comment: "'Damn it,' she cried aloud. 'Can't you see that theoretical answers are no answers at all! It has to be something you can DO!'"
Sheri S. Tepper writes engrossing science-fiction. While melodrama is the driving force behind many of the characterizations, the message of this novel goes much deeper than that, addressing such themes as religion and government, guilt and charity, the place of human beings (termed: 'very small being' in a particularly well-drawn scene in the novel) in the future universe, God, class, reproductive rights and overpopulation, and metamorphosis. While it is not a 'Brave New World', it is a sound work of science-fiction, and though it may not break out of this literature ghetto, it is worth however much time you spend reading it, whatever genre you prefer.
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Title: The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0553280643 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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Title: The Companions : A Novel by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 006053821X Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 02 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: RAISING THE STONES by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0553291165 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 August, 1991 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Visitor by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0380821001 Publisher: Eos Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Six Moon Dance by Sheri S. Tepper ISBN: 0380791986 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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