Sporting With Amaryllis

Rating:
Summary: An "Amaryllis" Not Quite Fully in Bloom
Review: I am a huge fan of The Place in Flowers Where Pollen Rests, Paul West's staggeringly inventive novel of the southwest; but I have to say I was disappointed by this book overall. The idea sounds SO fruitful: imagine John Milton, the man who wrote one of the great religious epics of all time, Paradise Lost, as a lascivious undergrad desperate to lose his virginity. But the premise is more enticing in summary than in execution, and I was even more dismayed to find West treating Amaryllis as a LITERAL muse. West's writing is always a pleasure, but this book, sorry to say, leaves one mostly with the impression of a great opportunity lost.