In Paul Monette's deceptively simple fable, Sanctuary, Renarda the fox and Lapine the rabbit fall in love in an enchanted forested watched over by a benevolent witch. That Renarda and Lapine are both female and of different species proves no impediment to their love, until the witch mysteriously disappears and her familiar, the Great Horned Owl, takes over. Suddenly, the animals are advised to "keep an ear cocked for any behavior that doesn't feel quite right," and all at once Renarda and Lapine are banished to separate parts of the forest. Activist and writer Paul Monette authored six novels and four collections of poetry, including National Book Award-winner Becoming a Man, before succumbing to AIDS in 1995. Renarda and Lapine's eventual triumph over the forces of fear and ignorance is an apt memorial for a man who led the fight against both for so many years.


From Publishers Weekly
"It may not have been?how could it have been??the very last forest. But to all the creatures who lived there...." Like a shaman, Monette?the novelist, poet, essayist, AIDS activist and National Book Award winner (Becoming a Man) who died of AIDS in 1995?creates a magic space within this animal fable, which resonates with wisdom and grace. This posthumous offering is an amazingly tender parable of same-sex love full of political overtones sounding Monette's lifelong themes of social justice, the need for tolerance of diversity and the fluid nature of sexual selves. The romantic love that blossoms between Renarda the Fox and Lapine the Rabbit is doubly wrong in the eyes of the dictatorial Great Horned Owl who presides over their forest realm?wrong because it's interspecies and because it's between two females. The Owl (not a wise bird here) commands all the forest creatures to spy on one another and to report any "differentness." By splitting up the forest's denizens into two races?First Ones and second-class "refugees"?the Owl sows antagonism and fear, fostering a network of spies and snitches. The lovers, once discovered, are charged with "crimes against nature," arrested and banished to separate rehabilitation camps, until a bumbling apprentice wizard, Albertus the Lesser, exposes the Owl as an impostor and transforms the forest into a haven of tolerance and love. Monette's complex, quicksilver prose aims at the heart and never misses. His entrancing tale is illustrated throughout with luminous, spectral pictures that enhance the moonlit aura of enchantment. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This work is being published posthumously after its author, National Book Award winner Monette (Becoming a Man, LJ 5/1/92), died of AIDS in 1995. A fairy tale for adults, it follows the tradition of Orwell's Animal Farm and lesbian writer Sun-ti Namjoshi's Feminist Fables, where animals are cast in the role of finagling and all-to-fallible humans. Renarda the fox and Lapine the rabbit live in a sanctuary created by a benevolent witch, where those who hunt for sport and not for survival?human hunters and loggers?cannot enter. By falling in love, Renarda and Lapine break two of the rules set by Owl, the self-appointed ruler of the forest sanctuary: they are of different, even inimical, species and they are both female. As seen here, the arbitrary nature of power, the distorting of history, and the invocation of "natural law" to ostracize and isolate are both fantastical and depressingly real. An outsider?a young, bumbling male wizard?exposes the Owl as a usurper and restores the spirit in which the sanctuary had been created. At a time when groups of "outsiders" are being created and denied citizenship rights, Monette has left us a utopia where the justices of nature prevail and the heart rules. Recommended for large general collections.?Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L., N.J.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Maggie Garb
Just before the disease [AIDS] claimed his own life, Monette set out to create a collection of fables about the lesbian and gay experience. Paul Monette hoped to fashion, as he put it, a tale "worthy of being told around the tribal campfire." That he has achieved, and more.


From Booklist
Fiction was not Monette's strong suit. In passion and vividness, his National Book Award^-winning autobiography, Becoming a Man (1992), and his other nonfiction surpass his novels. This posthumous publication is an allegorical fantasy. A female fox and a female rabbit fall in love and afoul of the laws of the forest as propounded by the great horned owl. The owl, once the familiar of the long-gone, gender-switching witch whose spell still protects the forest, doesn't have any genuine power but, exploiting his prestige, has convinced the other animals that he does. He exiles fox and rabbit to opposite ends of the forest. A young wizard comes along, resurrects the witch, and sets all to rights with a double wedding. Unfortunately, the tale seems unfinished. Boilerplate phrasing, grammatical gaffes, too many small elements so abruptly introduced that they seem incongruous, and the ploy of pleading for gay marriage and bisexuality by equating them with interracial relationships are all off-putting. Add as Monette's fame and popularity dictate. Ray Olson

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this beautifully written fable, the late Paul Monette brings us the story of Renarda the Fox and Lapine the Rabbit, two female creatures who fall in love in an enchanted forest sanctuary. In the time present/time past of the forest where Renarda and Lapine live, things have taken an eerie turn. The witch, their leader and protector, has disappeared, leaving the animals alone but under "the Spell" that protects them from all outsiders, hunters and explorers alike. As the witch lies faded among the leaves, her longtime familiar the Great Horned Owl realizes that this is his chance to assume control of the forest. In the ominous, newly intolerant atmosphere of the Owl's new domain, the love between Renarda and Lapine is doubly condemned, for they are both female and of different species. Exiled into separate parts of the woods by the Owl's bumbling guards, the lovers despair over ever being reunited. When Albertus, an apprentice wizard chances upon the forest and realizes the dark circumstances of its inhabitants, he and the animals struggle to summon forth the forest's true benevolent force. Like many classic fairy tales, Sanctuary is a story of a love thwarted by evil and set free through acts of goodness. Like Paul Monette's previous acclaimed works, it illuminates, with subtlety and humor, the absurdity of society's arbitrary rules, and celebrates the liberating nature of every kind of love.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"It may not have been-how could it have been?-the very last forest. But to all the creatures who lived there...." Like a shaman, Monette-the novelist, poet, essayist, AIDS activist and National Book Award winner (Becoming a Man) who died of AIDS in 1995-creates a magic space within this animal fable, which resonates with wisdom and grace. This posthumous offering is an amazingly tender parable of same-sex love full of political overtones sounding Monette's lifelong themes of social justice, the need for tolerance of diversity and the fluid nature of sexual selves. The romantic love that blossoms between Renarda the Fox and Lapine the Rabbit is doubly wrong in the eyes of the dictatorial Great Horned Owl who presides over their forest realm-wrong because it's interspecies and because it's between two females. The Owl (not a wise bird here) commands all the forest creatures to spy on one another and to report any "differentness." By splitting up the forest's denizens into two races-First Ones and second-class "refugees"-the Owl sows antagonism and fear, fostering a network of spies and snitches. The lovers, once discovered, are charged with "crimes against nature," arrested and banished to separate rehabilitation camps, until a bumbling apprentice wizard, Albertus the Lesser, exposes the Owl as an impostor and transforms the forest into a haven of tolerance and love. Monette's complex, quicksilver prose aims at the heart and never misses. His entrancing tale is illustrated throughout with luminous, spectral pictures that enhance the moonlit aura of enchantment. (Feb.)

Library Journal

This work is being published posthumously after its author, National Book Award winner Monette (Becoming a Man, LJ 5/1/92), died of AIDS in 1995. A fairy tale for adults, it follows the tradition of Orwell's Animal Farm and lesbian writer Sun-ti Namjoshi's Feminist Fables, where animals are cast in the role of finagling and all-to-fallible humans. Renarda the fox and Lapine the rabbit live in a sanctuary created by a benevolent witch, where those who hunt for sport and not for survival-human hunters and loggers-cannot enter. By falling in love, Renarda and Lapine break two of the rules set by Owl, the self-appointed ruler of the forest sanctuary: they are of different, even inimical, species and they are both female. As seen here, the arbitrary nature of power, the distorting of history, and the invocation of "natural law" to ostracize and isolate are both fantastical and depressingly real. An outsider-a young, bumbling male wizard-exposes the Owl as a usurper and restores the spirit in which the sanctuary had been created. At a time when groups of "outsiders" are being created and denied citizenship rights, Monette has left us a utopia where the justices of nature prevail and the heart rules. Recommended for large general collections.-Ina Rimpau, Newark P.L., N.J.

Kirkus Reviews

This final work by National Book Award winner (for Becoming a Man, 1992) Monette, novelist/poet/memoirist who died of AIDS in 1995, is cast in the form of a fable.

Monette does well as a stylist in this farewell effort ("minimally edited for clarity and resonance"), but less well as a storyteller. A witch of changeable gender casts a spell over a forest to protect the freedom of the First Ones, those animal descendants of the forest's first settlers. The witch dies, leaving her spell intact but the responsibility for its preservation in the uncertain hands of goofy Albertus, an apprentice wizard. Just what the spell is, or how it works, isn't made clear; its main function seems to be to repel interlopers—such as hunters—and to keep the forest as it has always been. On the other hand, the larger animals still chase the smaller; the law of the wild remains intact. When the witch dies, a Great Horned Owl, sensing an opportunity, displaces Albertus and takes it upon himself to rule in the witch's place, ostensibly on behalf of the First Ones. Owl announces to his subjects that many refugees, exiles, and criminals from felled forests have entered through a tear in the forest's fabric of magic, and he calls for harsh measures. Then, midway through the fable, Owl's Orwellian tactics cast a shadow over Renarda the Fox and Lapine the Rabbit, both females, who have fallen in love and decided to live together in the same den. They are circumspect, not wishing to upset the other animals by their same-sex, different- species affair. But Owl hears of their affair and, calling down the law on them, exiles Renarda and Lapine to different parts of the forest. Enter Albertus to save the day by resurrecting the dead witch.

As political fable, neatly enough spelled out but less than memorable.