THE VIOLENT LAVENDER BEAST. Hekkanen, Ernest. Saskatoon, Thistledown Press, 1988. 151pp, paper, $14.95, ISBN 0-920633-45-5. CIP Adult/Secondary Reviewed by Judy Baxter Volume 17 Number 1 1989 January When first glancing at the cover of The Violent Lavender Beast, one might mistake the book for science fiction. On the cover, a huge purple animal consumes a sun while a woman rushes screaming from a burning house below. The drawing actually refers to the final story of the collection. In this story, a man comes home to find his family living amid the putrid stench of rotting rats. We discover that these stories are not science fiction but are concerned with very real circumstances. It is the emotions of the characters described that seem to reach extraordinary limits. Each story begins fairly calmly by setting an ordinary scene. In "View across the Meadow," for example, two women go to a cottage on a summer vacation. The serenity of the outdoor landscape is finely detailed. On more than one occasion the women admire the beauty of some eagles flying overhead. Eventually, however, the women discover that the birds are not eagles but vultures hungrily surveying the scene next door. Here, a neighbouring family stands in their yard skinning a horde of freshly killed rabbits. The peaceful mood is sustained until the last lines. Finally, the lovely oasis is shattered by death. The treatment of these narratives is imaginative but at times it is also confusing. It is not clearly evident whether shock value is the only effect desired. By way of exploring the darkest thoughts of his characters, the author takes commonplace circumstances to the most bizarre extremes. A disturbing collection for older high school and adult readers. Judy Baxter, Wychwood Library, Toronto, Ont.