The Falling Woman

"The Falling Woman" by Pat Murphy, © 1986 Definitely an interesting book It is not everyday you get into the mind of a crazy person. Elizabeth Butler is eccentric, to say the least, maybe, truly, crazy. The great part of this story is the weaving of her daughter, Diane, and her story. They have stories that revolve around each other (we know this from seeing both sides), they find each other to be oddly interested in the other, but, in some ways, they find each other difficult. They have been estranged for most of the daughter's life because of the eccentric antics of the mother were objected to by the father, naturally. Then, after the daughter grew up, she did not try to find or get to know her mother, until now. She broke up with her (married) boyfriend. She quit her job (where the former boyfriend worked as well), flew of to find her Mom. She had some idea of where she was, the Mexican peninsula, Yucatan. Elizabeth is an archaeologist studying the ancient Mayan culture. She is on site when her daughter shows up. She and her partner, Anthony Baker, are in the middle of the Yucatan excavating an old Mayan city. The story develops the relationship of people to the world and each other. Where is the greater good: the people and culture, or just future generations? The best part of this story is the understanding of what makes a person 'crazy.' Like in "Les Miserables" where the cop chasing Jean commits suicide, this author takes you into the mind of a person and makes it seem to be the only real thing there is with no apology. It makes you feel like maybe there is something we are missing in our ordinary, real world.

This is a fantastic book, but falls into the "Speculative Fiction" category as upposed to traditional F & SF, which for me made it all the more endearing. It is a wonderful character and relationship study of mother and daughter. The charaterization is so authentic that these two women really come to life. Even down to the manorisms of the mother's smoking habit. The way she pauses to light each cigarette.The mother is a famous archeologist who had little time for her daughters upbringing. Reluctantly her, now adult, daughter joins her on a dig of the Mayan ruins. Ghosts of the past, both the Mayans, and the mother and daughter, mix to bring the two women closer together.One of the most unique aspects of this book is that the two women take turns telling the story, so that each chapter swithes back and forth between opposite view points.

After a long & fruitful life as an archeaologist, Liz Butler remembers that dig, long ago in the ruins of a Mayan city, when the shade of a long-dead priestess toppled her into a pool of twilight Mayan magic. This little adventure leapt off the best-seller shelf of a general store in a tiny town over a decade ago. One of those tourist racks, here this month & gone with the summer except that this one has some gristle, guts & a timely, riveting premise. Notwithstanding a fascinating heroine, hair-raising drama & suspenseful scenes. I'm glad to see it in reprint!

It's hard to tell how this is science fiction, or even fantasy as it's branded on the spine. I rather think it's magical realism. But whatever it is, it's just a beautiful, mesmerizing look at the world of the ancient Maya and how misunderstood they are by today's anti-spiritual world. Lovely writing, and some amazing craftsmanship went into the making of this novel.Plus, I learned a great deal more about the Maya.

This intriguing novel won the 1987 Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year. This is actually more of a psychological fantasy rather than a work of classical science fiction, although there are clearly science fiction elements present. A female archaeologist working on a dig in Central America is able to identify with the spirit of an ancient Mayan woman. The attempted sacrifice of this woman is apparently linked to the destruction of the Mayan civilization. The archaeologist's ability to link herself with the early inhabitants of an archaeological site has given her great advantages in her field. The interactions between the Mayan, the archeologist, and the archeologist's estranged daughter result in a healing embrace across time. All serious students of science fiction and speculative literature should read this book.