"Only recently have we come to enjoy some freedom from clothing designed to create an aesthetic of beauty based on physical impairment, elongated waists, squeezed breasts, and bound stomachs and buttocks. It is a wonder we can still walk. And who will be responsible for what those tortures have created? The existence of smelling salts, hysteria, frigidity and shrewishness can all be attributed to uncomfortable underwear."

Arachne Manteia is a heroine like no other. She is a mercurial adventurer who has a secret hankering for a suburban home, irreverent without actually being disrespectful, a loner yet in need of a partner for her nonchalant sexual liaisons, a panty sales rep peddling them to all the small towns in Alberta yet personally eschewing the product. According to Ovid, Arachne was a great weaver who boasted that her skill was greater than that of the older Athena. In van Herk's allegorical story, Arachne divulges her secretive life only to her friend Thena. Spidery allusions are abundant and clevery woven into the story. As usual with van Herk, her feminist symbolism is hugely entertaining!

I'm sorry to say I've had this 5-star book on the shelf for a long time. I could have, should have, enjoyed it years ago. ( )