20 FEBRUARY 1993, page 34

Failure Is Relative

Erica Wagner MERMAIDS IN THE BASEMENT by Marina Warner Chatto, f9.99, Indigo, L5.99, pp. 228 I n her new collection of short stories, Marina Warner has set herself a difficult......

This Below All, To Thine Own Elf Be True

Francis King MAYBE THE MOON by Armistead Maupin Bantam, f14.99, pp. 307 T hirty-one inches tall, the Jewish hero- ine of this novel, Cadence Roth, first achieved fame as a......