Elephantasm

I'm saying good bye to the first month of the year and to my 37th year. Of the half dozen books I've read two authors stand out for the sheer beauty of their wordsmithing - Daphne du Maurier and Tanith Lee.

The book is mislabelled as a Horror book - Piers Anthony mentioned this kind of publisher's ploy happening to his book Firefly too. Elephantasm is not Horror, it's Fantasy, and, as I've said, beautifully written.

This is a book set in both India and England but some of the best passages refers to the subcontinent. There is a portion of this book describing the palace in the heart of the rukh or jungle during late afternoon - its sheer descriptive beauty created imagery in my mind that is bound to stay with me forever.

The book has impressive depth. There are lessons here about approaches to life, prejudices, choices, and money.

Another wonderful point is that Lee brings to the fore an important fact. A fact that meets with denial in my mind and perhaps in the mind of many. The simple fact that we are all freaks. Not flawed but different. And that's the beauty of it. Lee somehow makes our individual idiosynchrasies normal - so normal that approval for it is not sought or needed.

I can't understand why Terry Brooks is a bestseller and Tanith Lee is not.

Elephantasm is in serious danger of being reread.