Friday Night at Silver Star FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Henley spent three years at a commune in the state of Washington, and many of her short stories are about women who plant beans, load alfalfa onto flatbed trucks and give birth at home with the help of midwives. These natives of the Northwest often become involved with strong, quiet men and play out their troubled lives and loves against a seemingly serene ``natural'' world influenced by the hippie idealism of the late 1960s. Even the stories about maturing young people in small towns are set against a calm Western air. The first piece is perhaps too rich in description, but Henley sharpens her language as she goes along, and by the time the same characters are brought back in the final story, they are more genuine and empathetic. (May)
Library Journal
The characters in this collection, winner of the 1985 Montana Arts Council First Book Award, are rooted in the Northwest and are searching for love and a way to understand it. In the strong title story, two women discuss their disillusionment outside an old hotel, now given over to a thriving sexual ``potluck'' night; they are tired of it and, like many herecommune dwellers, healers, misfits allseek solace elsewhere. In other stories, his parents' divorce leaves a young man seeking for reassurance, and a lesbian hitchhiker finds hope when an older man gives her a ride and a magic mushroom. The plots are scant, the endings a little weak, but the prose is vividly descriptive and readable. A promising work; for general collections. Peter Bricklebank, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY
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