Unicorn Mountain

This book was written in the 80s and there are points where it definitely dates itself, but it is still a great read and offers some nice insight into how the US was like at the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic. Bishop tells the story of how AIDS impacted one group of people, drawing some interesting parallels between AIDS and a mysterious disease killing the unicorns living on the ranch.

A fantasy book set in the real world. The premise is familiar to anyone who reads modern mundane fiction. Get a bunch of people with issues, put them together, have them chat a lot. So not much action or excitement, and a heavy emphasis on the "character driven" format, even though there are elements of the story that are fantastical, like ghosts and the presence of unicorns. Honestly, it felt like I was getting my peanut butter mixed up in my chocolate with this book. I would have preferred harder fantasy, or had the supernatural cut out all together. I enjoy things like magical realism, but that wasn't exactly what this was. The magic wasn't matter of fact, and it wasn't transcendent. It was strange and confusing and explained in odd show more ways and I just couldn't figure out what it was doing there. I also couldn't figure out why I was reading this book. The characters were ok I guess. Not particularly likable but not odious either. Their issues were understandable but again not interesting, and their relationship with each other felt minimal. The most poignant moment of the book was when Bo, a character dying of AIDS, reunites with his brother, and exclaims, "I have family!" There's a hookup near the end that was a complete shrug because there didn't feel like any leadup. I felt a bit like I was conned into reading some sort of fuzzy feel-good novel by promises of magic. I got the sense that there was supposed to be a crescendo at some point in all of this, but I never felt one.

The writing isn't bad. It's very 80s, and functional. There's a mindset in the book that I can't figure out if it's simple depiction, if it's casually racist, or what. The characters themselves are clearly not modern, enlightened beings, and as far as I can tell as someone who is an outsider myself the perspective of Native Americans in the book is represented, but you get these scenes where Libby, a white woman, is getting annoyed at the fact that a tribal policeman is suspicious of what he believes to be a weapon in her possession, and starts thinking of herself as akin to a white hostage during the western expansion, complete with burning ranches. I'm pretty sure that this was all intended to be read as just as bigoted as it is, but the constant flow of it sometimes made me wonder. I suppose I should be thankful that this book is too old give me lecture after lecture about critical race theory, at least.

Also, there's one fantasy word in the entire book. One, and the author had to put a fucking apostrophe in it. Minus one half star just for that. The fact that he lampshades the fact by making reference to it at one point doesn't absolve him of this sin. show less

This was a very moving book about unicorns, AIDS, and learning new things about oneself and others. I liked how Libby, Bo and Sam gradually got to know each other better over time.

NIL