THE LINNET'S TALE

This very, very British fable about a village of field mice falls into a fictional no-man's-land: too sophisticated for children, too unsophisticated for adults. The narrator is a linnet (a small finch common to England) raised by a field mouse family in a village called Tottensea Burrows, which is inhabited by mice who have excruciatingly cute and cumbersome names: Opportune Baggs, Adverbial Quoty, Clementine Nicklepenny, among dozens of others. Mr. Fieldpea has three eligible daughters, Grenadine, Incarnadine and Almandine, whose romantic interests provide some diversion. Merchanty Swift becomes the village's hero by dint of some clever actions. Most of the plot concerns the rodents' unexciting day-to-day existence, including their leisure activities in a bookshop and a bar. Suspense is provided by a cat that comes to the neighborhood, and by a band of pirates (rats and voles) in search of a valuable artifact. One would expect the mice to band together and heroically defeat the cat but, disappointingly, they simply move to a new location. While occasionally droll, the narrative is neither charming nor humorous. Willard consistently tells rather than shows, and though he attempts an anthropological resonance, the characters are altogether too fey to stimulate the reader's interest. B&w line drawings. (Apr.)