Amazon

Masquerading as a novel, this New Age feminist tract is basically a polemic on relations between the sexes and women's status in modern society. Imagining an Amazon catapulted from antiquity into the contemporary U.S., Walker ( The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets ) goes on to claim that the patriarchal society created by the Amazons' traditional enemies, the Greeks, has deprived women of most of their rights and recourses. Walker's Amazon protagonist, Antiope, has just gained adult rights by killing a foe in battle, but she somehow suddenly finds herself at the side of a highway, terrified of speeding cars and injured in an attempted rape. Writer Diana Foster rescues Antiope, heals her and introduces her to modern society, thus affording Walker a vehicle for voicing her dismay at the conditions into which women have fallen. After Diana writes a bestselling book on Antiope and her culture, the two women are alternately revered and reviled on talk shows and other incubi of popular culture. Media attention leads to an encounter between the Amazon and a man who looks just like the soldier she slayed. Walker's stilted language and strident outlook militate against her often keen and pointed observations. $20,000 ad/promo; author tour. (May)