norrin2's review
4.0
Russell Hoban was obsessed with art, mythology and sex. His writing is filled with references to opera and haute cuisine. But he was also something of a dirty old man who loved to pun. In short. he was my kind of writer. Here the hippogriff (basically half eagle, half horse) from Ludovico Ariosto's epic 16th century poem "Orlando Furioso" basically wills himself into our "dream of reality" because he wants to rescue Angelica himself, not just carry the hero on his back -- the eternal Angelica, the beauty in mortal peril, chained to the rock of her ethereal loveliness. Against all odds he manages to find her - in San Francisco, and that's where the trouble starts. As always when you read Hoban you want to be near a computer so you can look up all the artistic and musical references,
jennyanydots's review
4.0
A short and somewhat odd book i picked up in the library on impulse. I think this one may percolate around my brain for a while. A hippogriff escapes from a sixteenth century Italian poem. He's sick of carrying the hero to rescue the girl, and goes to find her himself. In modern San Francisco. I have no idea what else to say about this.
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