In a world that exists on the back of a giant turtle, two lovers named Laurie and Jaqe find themselves separated by an elderly woman named Mother Night, who is literally death, and her five red haired, leather-clad bikers.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Almost a set of short stories, this novel breaks into discrete episodes, centered on identity, love, and death. Jaqe has no identity until she meets Laurie, introduced and named by Mother Night; in that moment, she knows herself, and that she loves Laurie. But once Mother Night has become part of their lives, Laurie and Jaqe and their daughter Kate cannot live as other people do. Knowing Death, inevitably each of them seeks to use the knowledge, to bargain with Death, and to change the terms in the balance of life and death in the world.
Pollack's characters, major and supporting, living, dead, and divine, are memorably human. As she transplants myths and folklore into a modern setting, she gives new life to old tales and a deeper meaning to a seemingly simple world.
From Publishers Weekly
Departing from the future society she traced in Unquenchable Fire and Temporary Agency (a Nebula Award finalist), Pollack imagines with flair a fantasy world sprawled across the back of a giant turtle. At a dance at a college in a city "in the eastern part of the turtle, not far from the sea," two young women, Laurie and Jaqe, meet and fall in love. They also meet Mother Night, who helps the couple cope with the obstacles strewn across their path by family and society. An older, redheaded woman who rides around on a motorcycle, surrounded by a crew of younger, similarly carrot-topped women, Mother Night is in fact Death. While she helps Laurie and Jaqe in their quest for peace and justice, she also brings about the early demise of one of the lovers, shortly after a baby daughter is born. Mother Night becomes a true godmother to this child, watching over her and disclosing to her secrets of the departed. Pollack's fairy-tale plot is resourceful and original, but here, as in her earlier fiction, the emphasis is on character as she portrays women's intimate relationships with one another with resonance and realism. This is another fine outing by one of the most gifted and sensitive fantasists working today.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Godmother Night is now one of my favourite books & it's the most moving book I have read since Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. It's seemingly influenced by both the myth of Orpheus & Cocteau's film, Orphee, which also features a well-dressed woman who is literally death & is attended by motorcyclists. Readers interested in feminist, "women's" or lesbian fiction, as well as those attracted by magickal realism, pagan related fantasy & fairy tales, or just about anyone who loves brilliantly crafted & eloquently written books will not be disappointed. The love affair between Laurie & Jaqe is highly believable & I could strongly relate to their relationship & to the problems that Laurie encounters with her academic studies, it was like seeing parts of my life & aspects of myself on the page. At points I found the book distressing which only added to its power, it takes on serious issues from "life" & beyond. Though I already had some of the comics she has written (The Geek & Doom Patrol), the Vertigo Tarot book, & The Body of the Goddess, (which are of an equal standard to Godmother Night!) this book propelled me onto a quest to read more of her work. Prepare for an intense love affair with this author's work! It's a must read that has left me urgently needing MORE Rachel Pollack books.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Rachel Pollack has left me completely smitten. Smitten with Laurie, with Jaqe, Kate, and Godmother Night. I didn't want the story to end. She had me nervous, laughing, crying, anticipating. It's a story about love. Love that any reader can understand, in a very universal form. It's a story of high imagination, and vivid details. I could not put this book down. I have since recommended this book to 2 people who have also completely fallen in love with it. This is by far, the #1 on my lists of favorites. It is so beautifully written, and I have never had a book pull me in the way this book has. Thank you Rachel for your gift, without this book, I'd be missing out on something so damn good.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I read Godmother Night years ago, and it still creeps into my thoughts often. This book gave me chills and tears and those strange aha! moments when I felt like the story made me understand joy better.
I love how this book worked on several levels simultaneously. The love relationships (lovers, parents, friends) are heartbreakingly real and believable. The overlaying mystical/fantastical elements are like beautiful poetry: true as any truth, but dwelling outside the mundane. The layers lay together like an unfolding rose, impossibly perfect, impossibly beautiful. After Godmother Night, other love stories seem shallow and banal.
This is my favorite book of all time.
I love how this book worked on several levels simultaneously. The love relationships (lovers, parents, friends) are heartbreakingly real and believable. The overlaying mystical/fantastical elements are like beautiful poetry: true as any truth, but dwelling outside the mundane. The layers lay together like an unfolding rose, impossibly perfect, impossibly beautiful. After Godmother Night, other love stories seem shallow and banal.
This is my favorite book of all time.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Romeo_and_Juliet for dykes with a touch of On_a_Pale_Horse
This book really grabbed me... and I am not a feminist. If you read it because you're a politically correct moron and only read "women's books" or just because it's a... Read more
Published on July 12, 1998
If you die while reading this, be sure to take it with you!!
Rachel Pollack is amazing, her accurate account of two women falling in love and then losing each other, is amazing. Read more
Published on May 27, 1998 by babesrus@bigpond.com.au
very lyrical...had me from the start
I think this is one of the most beautiful books written this year. Its fairy-tale-like quality is enchanting, but is also completely believable. Read more
Published on May 13, 1997
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