Critical Essay | Critical Essay by Richard Elman

Critical Essay by Richard Elman

Of [the heroine of "The Headless Cupid"] we are told, "Amanda was indeed something else again. A student of the occult, she arrived in her ceremonial costume, complete with her Familiar, a crow named Rolor." After just 40 pages of tedious narrative in which nothing much happened except a lot of talk, I became aware that if Amanda was "indeed something else again" she was also rather a put-on. The author really didn't believe in the uncanny; she had merely dressed her characters up to tell the same old child's story of making friends.

Richard Elman, "A Goulash of Ghouls," in The New York Times Book Review (© 1971 by The New York Times Company; reprinted by permission), November 7, 1971, pp. 42-4.∗