- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: Collins (15 Nov 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0586215182
- ISBN-13: 978-0586215180
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,905,800 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Praise for Megan Lindholm:
‘A bright new talent in the fantasy field’
Charles de Lint
‘Lindholm has created a refreshingly different magic’
Locus
‘Fascinating, absorbing and well written’
Fantasy Review
Product Description
Evelyn is a solitary child, preferring to wander in
the woods in all weathers rather than socialise. Her secret is a fantastic companion: a faun with whom she plays in the woods.
Years later Evelyn finds happiness as a wife and mother, but life turns sour when the family move to Tacoma where her husband is asked to fill in at his
father’s business.
Evelyn’s husband’s wish for them to stay permanently with his family causes a rift between them and then a terrible tragedy makes the situation even more impossible.
Miraculously, when she needs a friend, Evelyn’s childhood companion reappears in Tacoma.
Pan, now an adult satyr and a secret friend to both her and her son, eventually becomes her lover.
He leads Evelyn on a odyssey out of her failed marriage to fulfilment in the woods of Alaska.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love all of Megan Lindholm's and Robin Hobb's books, but this is one of my favourites. It is powerful, beautifully written and deeply emotional. The daring story is totally convincing and evocative. After the last page, one is left with a feeling of sadness and longing; this book certainly deserves the title of classic.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I don't know how she does it. It must be magic. And indeed it is. `Cloven Hooves' is pure magic distilled into a completely singular story- beautifully woven, heart-rending and enthralling.
Having reached a third or so of the way into this book I did wonder whether the term `classic' was justified, because to be honest up until that point I didn't find the central character Evelyn at all easy to relate to, or even likeable. Part of the reason for this I think is that her character is very much the shrinking-violet for the first portion of the story, imprisoned by cruel and unfeeling relatives, ignored and disregarded. In other words, very unlike the characters with whom Lindholm and Hobb so often delight us. But Evelyn herself is little better- she's self-pitying, paranoid and inhibited. Only when she exhibits her assertive, independent and passionate sides does she really come alive, literally in front of the reader's eyes and believe me is that worth waiting for, because before too long you'll be voraciously devouring her story just as you have each and every one of her other successful pseudonym's many engrossing books. Going back to the roots of this author with `Cloven Hooves', I can definitely assure you you'll be discovering an early gem.
One negative aspect to the book I must point out, which I wasn't expecting- is the treatment of Evelyn by her in-laws with whom she, her husband and son are invited to stay with. This story (despite containing a faun) is more like contemporary fiction than it is fantasy in my view and for that reason I think, their cruel and inhuman treatment of her really jarred with me. While this author, writing as both Lindholm and Hobb has brought to life her share of heartless, vicious and unfeeling individuals, here she out-does herself with Grandpa Potter, Mother Maurie and their dependant, horse-whipped brood. So much so that at times I was really quite uncomfortable, but as a counter-point to Pan the faun, I must admit they work brilliantly, for without the dark how could we recognise the light?
By the time I had (very reluctantly) reached the ending there was very little doubt left in my mind. It is a classic and not because its themes are grand like those of high fantasy, but because its subjects are timeless and yet pleasingly character-specific, modest and yet epic. `Cloven Hooves' tells one woman's story, the story of her childhood, her family, her loves and her losses, and it tells all this unashamedly, without curbing its strongly female view-point. And for that the author must be congratulated, for the result is a very powerful, graphic and moving story that the reader doesn't soon forget. Certainly the most impressive story by Lindholm I've yet had the pleasure to read.
The story is made all the more poignant with the final lines that both elevate and deflate the reader. The rightness of Lindholm's writing is a pure joy.
Having reached a third or so of the way into this book I did wonder whether the term `classic' was justified, because to be honest up until that point I didn't find the central character Evelyn at all easy to relate to, or even likeable. Part of the reason for this I think is that her character is very much the shrinking-violet for the first portion of the story, imprisoned by cruel and unfeeling relatives, ignored and disregarded. In other words, very unlike the characters with whom Lindholm and Hobb so often delight us. But Evelyn herself is little better- she's self-pitying, paranoid and inhibited. Only when she exhibits her assertive, independent and passionate sides does she really come alive, literally in front of the reader's eyes and believe me is that worth waiting for, because before too long you'll be voraciously devouring her story just as you have each and every one of her other successful pseudonym's many engrossing books. Going back to the roots of this author with `Cloven Hooves', I can definitely assure you you'll be discovering an early gem.
One negative aspect to the book I must point out, which I wasn't expecting- is the treatment of Evelyn by her in-laws with whom she, her husband and son are invited to stay with. This story (despite containing a faun) is more like contemporary fiction than it is fantasy in my view and for that reason I think, their cruel and inhuman treatment of her really jarred with me. While this author, writing as both Lindholm and Hobb has brought to life her share of heartless, vicious and unfeeling individuals, here she out-does herself with Grandpa Potter, Mother Maurie and their dependant, horse-whipped brood. So much so that at times I was really quite uncomfortable, but as a counter-point to Pan the faun, I must admit they work brilliantly, for without the dark how could we recognise the light?
By the time I had (very reluctantly) reached the ending there was very little doubt left in my mind. It is a classic and not because its themes are grand like those of high fantasy, but because its subjects are timeless and yet pleasingly character-specific, modest and yet epic. `Cloven Hooves' tells one woman's story, the story of her childhood, her family, her loves and her losses, and it tells all this unashamedly, without curbing its strongly female view-point. And for that the author must be congratulated, for the result is a very powerful, graphic and moving story that the reader doesn't soon forget. Certainly the most impressive story by Lindholm I've yet had the pleasure to read.
The story is made all the more poignant with the final lines that both elevate and deflate the reader. The rightness of Lindholm's writing is a pure joy.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
8 reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful, magical, poignant.
8 Dec 1997
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Megan Lindholm writes a moving story about a misfit, a woman who feels more comfortable in the wilderness of the cold north than with other humans, who loses her son in a tragic accident and her husband in its destructive wake, and who retreats to the forest with a childhood friend -- a faun.
If you like "crossover fantasy" where the present day reality mixes seamlessly with other realms, you'll enjoy this and her earlier book "Wizard of the Pigeons." Also highly recommended is her Farseer series (beginning with "Assassin's Apprentice"), under the pen name of Robin Hobb.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Brilliant, magical, enlightening
11 July 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Megan Lindholm taps the root of teen angst and the pain of being different while struggling against societal norms for a young woman. Her prose and timing are brilliant and the enlightenment almost heart breaking. Her characters shine with life. She employs a technique of jumping back and forth between young woman/mother and child teen from chapter to chapter. I've rarely seen this used successfully, but Lindholm makes it seem ideal.
Even as a man, I felt and perhaps began to understand the agony a teenage girl/young woman can feel when she refuses to or can't "fit in". The character of Pan just feels right and adds to the magic of childhood, motherhood, and the struggle for independent thought. The story would have worked well even without the mythic side turning out to be "real", but throughout is original and uncontrived.
Only someone who refuses to read literature that asks us to grow and insists on only cheery stories could fail to see the brilliance of Cloven Hooves. From beginning to end it is unique, balanced, and extraordinary. I recommend it at the highest level.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Poignant and Distressing
1 Sep 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I would recommend this book; I have never forgetten it, but I will never read it again, it is so sad. It is well written, like all of her books: I would say it is about reality and fantasy, and reality loses. My favorite book of Lindholm's is Wizard of the Pigeons. Thank you Amazon: I didn't know she was Robin Hobb and learned it from a review. The reviews on Amazon are a delight. Love.
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