Jane Rule writes disciplined, tightly organized, nonautobiographical novels which are concerned much more with character and theme than with plot. Her novels are intellectual, though not very difficult; they are also passionate and tender and optimistic. Rule's characters are typically people who have left behind certain conventions of social grouping and behavior or who are tempted to do so. The challenge they face is one of "voluntary human relationships," in which they must invent new and variable guidelines for communal life. The author's respect and sympathy for her characters, in particular for their growth and freedom, are strongly felt throughout. Herself a lesbian. Rule always includes at least one lesbian relationship in each of her novels. A particularly attractive feature of Rule's fiction is that such relationships never overshadow her portrayals of characters who do not submit to definition by a single factor such as sexual orientation. Rule's...