The Applecross Spell
Wendy Macintyre
XYZ Publishing
$22.95
paper
192pp
1-894852-03-6
Males, however, are depicted unfavourably. The husband Murdo (murder?), for instance, represents oppressive male power and authority. MacIntyre does concede, however, that redemptive transformation is possible for particular (male) individuals. She complements her feminist focus (she also criticizes the current state of feminism as being commodified and splintered into rival factions) with commentary on racism, homosexuality, poverty, marriage, and family dynamics, the latter deriving from the writings of R.D. Laing. Family, for MacIntyre, bears the “instability of tectonic plates.”
As a medievalist, I appreciated the historical backdrop – the references to magic, herbology, and the emphasis on the sense (primarily touch, smell, visions, and psychic sense), which refer to a medieval sensibility. MacIntyre’s effortless writing style captures the reader with phrases like “Gulls swooped like manic angels” or “the innocent scent of the earth.” The Applecross Spell is a politically progressive, intelligent and emotive book that leaves one wishing that the ideal of personal emancipation were indeed possible. mRb
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