Most of Hall's books feature strong and independent young women; Jennifer is therefore unusual in her desire to hide from her problems or even run away from them. Even so, she has inner reserves of strength that she seems unaware of, and she is making progress toward independence at the novel's end. Fair Maiden follows the pattern of most of Hall's novels by featuring a broken family. In the case of Fair Maiden, Jennifer's mother Jackie has gone through a couple of husbands, not through much fault of her own—Michael's psychopathic violence would be enough to scare most people away. In the case of Flying Changes (1991), the mother has been absent for many years; in the case of A Killing Freeze (1988), the mother has long been dead; in the case of The Solitary (1986), the mother has murdered the father; in other works, the protagonists...