a world of magical imagery, human

I

nconcerns may sometimes be overshadowed by larger, overarching concerns for life and death. However, in Hoffman's The River King, the otherworldly events and imaginings serve only to outline, and never subsume, human social concerns. The major theme sitting astride Hoffman's story is the issue of deceit. The story is riddled with lies, from those that the boarding students tell each other, to the lies lovers tell one another, to the lies that the characters tell themselves. Hoffman focuses on the trail each lie follows as it wends its way through a character's life, and deals specifically with the ways in which lies affect the character's psyche, as well as how lies affect relationships between the liar and the lied to.

Deceit takes on varying shades and nuances in the sub-plots of the story. Carlin Leander and Gus Pierce, two...