published 1996; trade paperback 1996; paperback 1997, HarperPrism

Okay. I confess, I didn't really read past page 30 of The Dragon and the Unicorn. Not because I hadn't started off meaning to, however, but just because I couldn't subject myself to it any longer.

One of the blurbs on the inside of this book describes A.A. Attanasio's writing style as "literary." Another says he is "using the dictionary as a launching pad." I suppose if "literary" is defined as, "using words in an unintelligible manner for no coherent purpose," then Attanasio's writing is definitely literary. My journalism professor had another term for what Attanasio does -- "purple prose." As for launching things, I can think of a few objects I'd like to send into space, with this book being one of them.

Don't get me wrong; I like Arthurian fiction. I've read by my count more than 15 fictional treatments of the great saga, plus a number of nonfiction books as well. I just had a hard time getting through sentences like, "Out from the pale folds of her raiment, she releases a huge white opal as if from inside her body, a vitreous egg oily with moonlight," without snickering uncontrollably.

So I did what any sensible person would do: skimmed the book for sex scenes. I was rewarded around page 370 with a romance-novel-worthy description of Uther and Ygrane as they "plunge burning with love and its sun into the nameless night."

But then the fun was over, so I threw The Dragon and the Unicorn on the bedroom floor and picked up another book from the louring caliginous stack of tomes overarching the easeful expanse of my locus of nocturnal repose. Life is too short to spend reading annoying books.

Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed February 15, 1998

ISBN 0-06-105779-7

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