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Fata Morgana
"...a seductive, pyschological drama..." (From the front leaf.
357 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 4, 2023
I took a great writing class from Lynn Stegner earlier this year, so was curious to see what her published work was like. I think this is a terrific novel - she does an amazing job developing complex characters and I was intrigued by the overall structure of the novel. Definitely worth reading.
October 7, 2023
3.5 stars.
Lynn Stegner is the daughter-in-law of Wallace Stegner, the late novelist and western writer who is one of my favorites of all time. I've read his 1967 book All the Little Live Things no fewer than three times, and Crossing to Safety, twice. I can see a shadow of Wallace in Lynn's writings; for example, at one point in Fata Morgana, she uses the phrase, verbatim: "all the little live things," and includes a scene with a horse that meets an untimely end, just like in Stegner's book. Surely, her father-in-law rubbed off on her.
In this book, I see good writing, and I found myself nodding appreciatively at this or that turn of phrase. But for me, I couldn't relate to the topic: young school girls flitting about campus, coming of age in a Catholic school. I did find the character Dixie Darling intriguing in certain respects, but also like a cardboard cutout -- the renegade adolescent flying disobediently in the face of all societal rules. And I wasn't convinced that the narrator, Susan, was changed by her friendship with Dixie. I felt that the ending came all too quickly; perhaps an epilogue would've sufficed for me. I don't regret reading Fata Morgana at all. It took a while for my interest to take hold, but once it did, I was swept along until the end.
Lynn Stegner is the daughter-in-law of Wallace Stegner, the late novelist and western writer who is one of my favorites of all time. I've read his 1967 book All the Little Live Things no fewer than three times, and Crossing to Safety, twice. I can see a shadow of Wallace in Lynn's writings; for example, at one point in Fata Morgana, she uses the phrase, verbatim: "all the little live things," and includes a scene with a horse that meets an untimely end, just like in Stegner's book. Surely, her father-in-law rubbed off on her.
In this book, I see good writing, and I found myself nodding appreciatively at this or that turn of phrase. But for me, I couldn't relate to the topic: young school girls flitting about campus, coming of age in a Catholic school. I did find the character Dixie Darling intriguing in certain respects, but also like a cardboard cutout -- the renegade adolescent flying disobediently in the face of all societal rules. And I wasn't convinced that the narrator, Susan, was changed by her friendship with Dixie. I felt that the ending came all too quickly; perhaps an epilogue would've sufficed for me. I don't regret reading Fata Morgana at all. It took a while for my interest to take hold, but once it did, I was swept along until the end.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews