Chasm, A Weekend
Dorothea Tanning
Overlook Press, $22.95, 156 pages, ISBN: 1585675849
reviewed by Barry Hunter

Tanning is well known as an artist and poet. Now at the age of 94, her first novel has been published. It is as surreal as her paintings and is a dark fantasy about a strange house and a stranger child.

Since 1682, every female has been named Destina and this is the story of the girl born in 1958 to Raoul Meridian’s unwed daughter and the strange home he built in the California desert called Windcote. It is a place filled with strangers and strangeness. Destina’s only friend is a mountain lion that lives in a mysterious canyon that plays a prominent part in the finale of the book.

This is an unusual book that has a Victorian feel and this short novel will be a memorable fantasy experience.