Review: Lilith

Lilith by Eric Rickstad
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eric Rickstad missed the boat with this book. Elisabeth Ross, the main character, acts as a man may have acted in this totally illogical plot. Her solution to political inaction on gun control is the solution of a male mindset, not the creation of a new female paradigm that I had desired. I was very disappointed. Rickstad tries hard to think like a woman but doesn't seem to realize that we don't want to act within the same norms that the world has dictated forever. We don't need to be men in order to be respected as equals. We can create new and world-changing standards for tackling problems and for living our lives that are feminine and successful—and success is what we decide to define it. To watch Ross simply act violently without much thought (except justified grievance) was sad to read.

Rickstad has written two of my favorite novels: The Silent Girls and Reap. By far, Reap is the best. Both are set in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where I live. Reap perfectly captures the isolation and poverty of the area. It is lyrical. These two books are another reason why Lilith is disappointing to me. Rickstad probably cannot forever set his books in the Kingdom and have them relevant to other readers in the country (which may be what a publisher thinks but is not true). However, he has lost his voice in Lilith and I barely recognized his writing.

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