SOURCE: "Magic and Metaphors of Mystery," in Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 11, 1983, p. 12.

In the review below, Gold claims that The Lizard's Tail suffers from Valenzuela's lack of focus on her subjects, stating that she "broods about making magic too much to be able to make the magic."

The notion that a writer can accumulate notes, scenes, assorted peeks at sexy stuff, italicized thoughts, a little dialogue, myth and mystery without numbering the pages, and then perform the work of writing a novel merely by gazing prayerfully and distractedly at this heap of material and adding page numbers—this has done some damage to the art of the novel. Well, not to the art itself, of course, which has a vigorous tradition of survival despite all assaults, but to the craft as it is occasionally practiced. The no-page-number technique requires a long work table, for spreading out...