Dark Cities Underground
   Lisa Goldstein
  1999 A Tom Doherty Associates Book, NY USA
   ISBN: 0312868286


Attempting to interview a middle-aged recluse who was, as a child, the central character in a series of classic children's books, Ruthie, a single mother, becomes enmeshed in a fantastical struggle between dark & light all connected to the great underground trains & her own life choices.

Because I've thrilled to the rides of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system & commuted to school across London via its fabled Underground, I found Dark Cities Underground like a figment of my own imagination.

Lisa Goldstein has created a fine fantasy, transformed what she's seen all around her with a tincture of madness, sadness, goodness & evil. Everyday things take on mythic proportions & her continuity of time boggles your mind.

For anyone who has read the great classics of both archaeology & children's literature you will run through time warps & enter deja vues that tickle your memory lobes & raise your hackles.

Lisa Goldstein has woven a tight story from disparate threads like linen from Ancient Egypt, brocade from Victorian London & polyester from today's Bay Area.

People in one chapter become dog-headed gods of the after life in another; clouds becomes weeping women & three strange sisters merge into one everlasting harpy. Weird & wonderful is the world of Dark Cities Underground, a thoroughly modern yet eminently eligible heir to Peter Pan & Alice in Wonderland.

Also by Lisa Goldstein: The Red Magician; Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon; Summer King, Winter Fool; Tourists; Traveller in Magic & Walking the Labyrinth
(05/14/00)

Rebecca