Are your car
insurance
rates
driving
you up the

wall?

 

 

} Compare Allstate rates.
Ellen Hetherington

863-3808

/lIlslale®

Allstate lnsurance Company, Northbrook, IL

March 1991

  (frompage16)

who has two obsessions: starting a trend in
punk spike hairstyles and clandestine body
building with the wife of a local Xerox
executive; the Karma Cafe proprietor, who
does past life regressions over tofu platters;
the neighborhood prowler; the Commu-
nist; the bom-agains; the gay men; the su-
permarket gossipers; et al. They all live in
Roches Ridge... and what's even stranger
(and gives this novel much of its flavor and
charm) is the level of tolerance and accep-
tance in their human interactions. As the
creator, Alther succeeds in crafting this
bizarre assortment of people and all their
emotional baggage into a kind of mundane,
"live and let live" community. Nothing is
very ordinary, or close to status-quo nor-
mal, or even very pretty, but somehow,
everything is OK. As Clea is finally able to
come to terms with all that surrounds her,
instead of editing out life's imperfections,
she discovers some fundamental elements
of her persona and unearths her "bedrock."

When all was said and done, I asked
myself whatl got out of reading this book.
It's a far cry from reality and while many of
the characters are likeable, some of them
are downright offensive. Clea's character
is, at times, a bit drawn out and self-indul-
gent. And the book does little or nothing to
enhance the Vermont tourist trade (maybe
that's why.it was written). More than once,
I found myself thinking, if this is Vermont
subculture, I'm ready to move to San Fran-
cisco!

In the end, what makes Alther appeal-
ing and entertaining is her imagination and
skill as a writer. If this book is lacking in

AAAAAAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

political correctness or human etiquette, it
compensates with its magnanimous vision
of the willingness of the human spirit to
grow and change in an environment that
offers nurturing by mere acceptance. It's a
positive vision, and one from which we can
all learn.

Women Helping Bat-
tered Women Initiates
Speakers Bureau

Women Helping Battered Women
announces its newest community educa-
tion project, the Women Helping Battered
Women’s Speakers’ Bureau. Staffed by
trained community educators, the Bureau
is available to provide presentations, work-
shops, and in-depth training to local groups
on the subject of domestic violence.

Women Helping Battered Women is a
non-profit United Way agency which has
provided services to battered women and
their children for the past seventeen years.
The agency provides emergency housing,
24-hour crisis support, life planning, and
educational services to over 1,000 clients
each year.

For more information on these pro-
grams, write PO Box 1535, Burlington VT
05402 or call the office at (802) 658-3131.
The emergency Hot Line number is (802)
658-1996.

Partners in Recovery and Growth Inc., Therapists

Erica Marks, S.A.C., A.C.H., Director I
Giita Clark, Associate
Sherry Hunt, B.A., A.C.H., Associate

Sexuality, Substance Abuse, Spirituality, Parenting, Gestalt, T.A.,
Hypnosis, Individuals, Couples, Families, Groups

T 182 Main St.
Burlington, VT 05401
Sliding fee scale Phone: 865-2403

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

 

19