Emshwiller, Carol. The Mount. Brooklyn: Small Beer P, 2002.

It's nearly July and I've lost all ability to write smartly about books, the graduate-school equivalent of forgetting long division after fifth grade is over. I suspect I'll need a couple weeks of review once school starts up again, running drills on stuff I so learned how to do last year.

At any rate, this is a great summer novel. Sci-fi, in that it's about an alien race that's taken over this planet, turning human beings into horse-like mounts they use to get around, and also whom they race and breed and award prizes to. Interestingly, the workhorse humans are called Seattles and the racing humans are called Tennessees. The language that the aliens speak is lovely and poetic in a stunted way:

"Has it?" The Present-Ruler-Of-Us-All says. "Has it ... has, oh, has? And all too soon? Yet, or, one hopes, not yet? And yet all? And still? So that the present [...] So that the present is a time gone by already?"

So I don't usually like sci-fi, and this is also an allegory which I also don't really like, but again the language is so great to read, and plus there's this silent and strong father character, which I'm always attracted to for complex reasons.

The boyfriend says I like the book only for its cover. The muscles, etc. And yet it can't really only be this, can it? It is eye-grabbing, not matter what your tastes.