Boneland by Alan Garner

So at long last our heat wave has broken.  We sweltered under a tremendous heat wave for the past week, and during June and July had many days where it was very hot and humid.  There is such a cool breeze coming through the window tonight that I might have to shut the window soon......all this to say, I can sit comfortably at the computer for the first time since I wrote my last post.  In that space of time, I read Boneland by Alan Garner, and have some thoughts on reading it.
                                                       

Boneland by Alan Garner is #3 in the Weirdstone Trilogy.  What happened to Colin and Susan after the ending of The Moon of Gomrath?  What happened is what happens when you find yourself in a fairy tale or a myth, come true.  I don't know how often as child that I wondered what it was like to be in a fairy tale.  I was fascinated by some of them, and some terrified me.  Some made me cry.  What I didn't consider then, what no child understands, is that myths change you.  You can't step into the forest, you can't follow the breadcrumbs, you can't chase the hind, you can't dance with the fairies, without something being forever altered.  It has to do with mystery, or Mystery, that unknowable real way that the world works in.  When we begin that hero's Journey Joseph Campbell talks about, even if it is as innocent as inheriting the bracelet that Susan wears and eventually loses, change is going to come.  Things can't go back to what they were, no matter what happens.  Children will follow the glitter, the fun, the adventure, and Boneland is the story of what comes after.

In this particular case, Susan is still gone.  Colin doesn't even remember her, except that as the novel unfolds, we realize everything he is doing is to try to find her again.  A lot of ancient British myth is lived through in this novel, as Colin struggles to remember what happened before he was 13.  It's a painful book in some ways, for he is considered troubled, with asperger's, as well as brilliant in his field, which is astrophysics.  How he helps himself is brilliant and sad at the same time.  The mind is capable of so much, but when faced with the loss of a sibling and no real answers, how does the soul cope?  Mystery has a cost, a price to be paid.  It is Boneland's success that Colin is recognizable as an adult from the child he was in the earlier novels, and that what has happened to him is believable.

This story of how he tries to heal himself is beautiful and true.  The language is the language of myth, rooted in his landscape and folktales as the earlier books were.  I love how he blends daily life with the myth, as we see the progression in Colin.  I love this bit on questions and answers:

             " (Meg) :  'But are you saying there's no final answer?'
               " 'I hope there isn't,' said Colin. 'I'm for uncertainty. As soon as you think you know, you're done for.  You don't listen and you don't hear.  If you're certain of anything, you shut the door on the possibility of revelation, of discovery.  You can think.  You can believe.  But you can't, you mustn't, "know".  There's the real entropy.' "
     
     He's right.  I read that sentence, paragraph, and I stopped, and realized it is true.  For so many things in this world.  When we know, when we think we know - when I think I know - I stop listening.  "I don't know" can be the start of so many wonderful adventures......

and so when it comes down to it, we have to go down the path.  We have to know where the trail leads, we have to know what that key in Bluebeard's house opens, we have to be kind to the Beast.  Fairy tales are true because in our souls we already know them, somehow.  Read Boneland and see how the myth of a place, the setting of stone and tree and sun and moon, gets into your skin, and becomes a part of how you think and relate to the world around you. That's where myth begins.

Boneland isn't an easy book to read, but it's a true telling of what comes after.  It's fascinating, too.  Highly recommended.

Angela Carter, and Alan Garner - fantasy and fairy tale reading for a Saturday night

  I was saving a post for tomorrow on another mystery I read and was enthralled by.  I still plan it, but I just had to share this link with you.  It comes by way of Terri Windling's blog, The Drawing Board, a quick post here about an article on Angela Carter.  She provides the link to The Paris Review, and an astonishing article on Angela Carter and her legacy. It's a wonderful post, by Marina Warner, who is a specialist in writing about fairy tales herself.   Most of the post is about The Bloody Chamber, which I read a few years ago, and to which I also responded to in a deep, subterranean way.  Some of the images and the feel of the stories linger in me, a sign that they (and Carter) have touched a deep place in me.  Imagine if there had been no Angela Carter - what would have happened to fairy tales, which were languishing in the abandoned corner of children's literature?  Scorned as old and after Disney got through with them, sickly sweet? She revolutionized and modernized the fairy tale by re-imagining them, writing in a voice that as Warner says, makes the tales real - using physical location and senses, light, dark, using all the dark and bloody things fairy tales are really about, so something deep in us does sit up and take notice. Fairy tales are alive today, and the article argues that it is mostly because of Angela Carter and The Bloody Chamber. 

Go read the article, and I hope it is as illuminating for you as it was for me.  Then go back to Terri Windling's blog, where she has a very short post about Alan Garner's new book Boneland, and some links to some interesting articles about it and him. 

Fantasy and fairy tale and myth reading for Saturday night.  Enjoy!!

The Hobbit and Alan Garner - some fantasy musings

The Hobbit 
 I completely missed the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, yesterday.  I found this wonderful article on why The Hobbit has become so popular, over at The Telegraph: The Hobbit, What Has Made It Such an Endearing Success? It's quite a good article, with some food for thought on myths and legends and sources for fantasy.  The Hobbit was my introduction to Tolkien and the world of fantasy, it will always be dear to me for that, never mind that it is such a fun story, so well-told, so rich that I can read it over and over and never grow tired of it.  That makes it a special book, indeed.

Alan Garner
Over at Reuters, there is a lovely article on Alan Garner and why he wrote the newest book, Boneland, in the Colin and Susan series.  I have been reading The Weirdstone of Brisingamen for the last little bit.  It is even more suprisingly good and deep and dark than I remembered from my long-ago reading of it.  I am enjoying his use of setting, place names, and the people.  I can feel how much the sense of location and the feeling of myth around works its way through the book, and Garner talks about this in the article I linked you to.  He makes a valid point that landscape is necessary to people to not be alienated, that a connection to landscape is needed.  This feeling for how the land is, comes through in his books, and I'd forgotten how strong it is. 

Myth and landscape
Both article talk about myth, and how myth is needed for us as a civilization.  We need stories.  We need adventures and heroes, and to venture into the unknown and come back again.

Myth and landscape.....in fantasy, they are intertwined.  Place, the story of place, how the mountain got it's name, why the river flows in that shape, how long the old tree has been growing in the field. Do you look around your landscape and feel some connection to it? do you watch it through the seasons? Do you feel a sense of home when you come down the road to your place, do the hills and grasses and animals seem to welcome you back?

Animals
 We often have bears, moose and deer even here in Ottawa, when the animals come wandering in out of the fields and forests, looking for food. Here's  a story from two weeks ago, in the west-end of our city: bears chased from west-end neighborhood.  Is it any wonder that so many of our myths and stories feature talking animals, or shapeshifters, or ancestors who are honoured animals? We have skunks, raccoons, and rabbits as neighbors, even here in the middle of the city.  I have seen snakes, frogs and turtles during my many walks in my neighborhood, thanks to the Mud Lake Preserve two blocks from our house. Does a bog creature live in there? perhaps, the water is deep enough.....

Magic and myth in the world
Fantasy is about taking that first step out there, into the wild, out of the city, into the forest, the river, the nature preserve, the countryside, and into myth, and legend, folk-story, fairy tale, the story of encountering the other.  There is magic and myth in the world, and fantasy is our modern storytelling way into remembering it, and finding it again. It was reimagined for the modern age in The Hobbit.  I for one am always grateful for the wonder and imagination that fantasy brings into my life. 

The Hobbit doesn't use the sense of place in the same way that all of Garner's books use, and it's interesting to study them both and see the variety of fantasy at work in both authors.  Both have a rich use of language as well, Tolkien drawing on Norse myths and sagas for his world and frame of storytelling, Garner drawing on Celtic myths and fairy tales for his.  Tolkien is pure story, Garner is language and mood and landscape.  Different kinds of fantasy, both rich and delightful in each of their ways. 

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here on this Saturday night.  Mostly I am musing about fantasy, things being stirred up in my mind by both articles.  Fantasy is one of my delights in reading, and I wanted to share with you some of what I think fantasy needs to be successful, like The Hobbit is.

What do you think?  Have you read either author? Do you find fantasy stirs your sense of wonder and  imaginings?

Books I can hardly wait for!

I am so excited!  Here are a few books that are coming out this year, ones that I didn't expect or even know about:

Giles Blunt, my favourite Canadian mystery writer, has a new one in his John Cardinal series, which is going to be released August 7.  Cardinal was last seen in Crime Machine, which I reviewed here last year. This was exciting enough to discover. 

Of all things, Alan Garner has a sequel - ok, third book, in the now Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath two books series, now after 50 years has the third book due out next month, here is the link to the Guardian article. Click on Boneland in the article.  

I don't know when it's coming out in Canada, though it's on my wishlist now.  One of the best fantasy series ever.  I'm due to reread the two books now, so it will be fresh whenever Boneland is out here.

Here, is the cover of the new Artur Indridason, due out July 24.  It features Sigurdur Oli, last seen in Outrage, which was supposed to be in paperback this month, and has now been put back to October. I don't know if I should read Outrage first, I guess I should.  But why would the second one be out in softcover before the first one?  Mysteries of  publishing. 





And then, finally:  the very first Harry Hole mystery is going to be published.  It's not coming out here until October, but here it is, the cover of The Bat. 

  It's set in Australia, and is the case that made his name (that we have seen referred to in The Red Breast and some of his other books).  I am so thrilled.  I am currently reading Phantom, his latest mystery, and am totally engrossed in it. The Bat was never published before in English, the Harry Hole series in English started with The Red Breast, so this is wonderful news.***edited to add:  We get the whole series! 

So what books are you waiting for, or that you have just learned are going to be out later this year?

Folktales to begin the new year, and the books I didn't read (again)

Books I Can't Wait for in the New Year
So there I was on Friday, looking through the Guardian book site on my lunch time at work.  This is always a dangerous thing to do, since I am always finding out about books I haven't read yet.  This is what happened

on Friday.

It's not out here until the beginning of January, but honestly, after reading in the Guardian this review by Neil Gaiman on this Alan Garner new book, who could resist this?  It looks so good, so perfect, a lovely way to begin the new year. 

Among Others by Jo Walton is out on Jan 3 in softcover.  I've been waiting 8 months for this.   All of you who've read it - Carl, Memory, Nymeth,  have loved it.  I so want to read it too!  Two weeks now, and counting......
 The House at Sea End by Elly Griffiths is also out in softcover Jan 3. I think I like this day already.  This is part of the ongoing Ruth Galloway series which I am really enjoying.

Since I don't own these yet, I thought I'd ask you, what books are you waiting for to come out in the new year?

Random thoughts from other people's blogs:
In news around the book blogging world, Carl has a wonderful post up on books he thought he would have read by now, and hasn't, and wants plans to read next year.  If you have some of your own (and I dare any book reader to not come up with a list of those!), let Carl know what they are.  My  post today is in answer to some of the questions he asked in his wonderful, thoughtful post.

Nymeth also has a wonderful post on books she wants to read as soon as they are out next year.  I've already checked out the Diana Wynne Jones book on writing, which Amazon sadly isn't even listing here yet.

****Edited to add: I had to get off the computer in a hurry as the children were waiting to use it to search for cheats for their Star Wars Wii game.  While I was off, I remembered I had read Care's lovely post about how she failed at reading certain books this year, and challenges, here.  So if you are like us, drop us a line so we don't feel quite so guilty alone about not being the kind of readers we think we should be.  It's all in fun, I know, both wanting to be more well-read, and the plans we make for reading.  It's awfully fun to cross books off the to-read list!!!*******

Some books I thought I'd read this year, and haven't:
Certainly I have books I thought I would have read by now - indeed, Ulysses is top of that list, since I started it last winter, and it languishes on my to be read pile, along with Samuel Pepys Diary, which I also really want to read, started two years ago, and then got sidetracked.  That's only two.  Any Charles Dickens this year - and I'd better finish A Christmas Carol this year, or I am in trouble with myself! **I just checked, and I now own 4 novels by Dickens, PLUS Drood by Dan Simmons, which I also haven't read.  Points finger at self: read Charles Dickens in 2012, Susan! I haven't read either of the annotated Jane Austens I picked up,  nor have I finished the House by The Thames by Gillian Tindall, which I started reading when I got it out of the library, went out and bought my own copy, and now it sits on the same shelf. I wonder if it's possible to have ADHD  when it comes to reading??? Kraken or Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.   I really can't believe I haven't read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest yet.   Or Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb - I have loved the other two series.  So how have I missed this series?  Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden. Oh, there is so much I planned to read this year and haven't yet!  The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Settlefield. A Visit from the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan.

 Books I thought I'd read by now in my life, and haven't.  That's a harder question to answer.  Ulysses, certainly. Any novel by Ursula K LeGuin.  The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery.  London the Biography by Peter Ackroyd. Bleak House by Charles Dickens.  Anything by Neal Stephenson - I own Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Quicksliver.   Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A Heinlein.  I can't believe I haven't read Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist, when I loved the Swedish version of the movie so much that I bought it, and everyone who has read the book says it is one of the best vampire novels ever, and I loved  his Handling the Undead earlier this year.  I really can't believe I haven't read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest yet.    Anything by Anthony Trollope. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. War and Peace, on every 'I will read this year' list I've ever done. Emily Dickinson.

100 books?
So for the next week, I am setting some reading goals for 2012.  I've been looking at all the challenges surfacing, and thinking over joining some.  I did discover that I read more when I have lots of room for spontaneity.  While it's still in question if I will reach 100 books read this year - 10 books in 10 days, more or less....Christmas and New Year's in the midst of that......I remain optimistic that I will.  I already have had the best reading year in the past 15 years that I've been keeping a book list.  That is something, my friends, something indeed. So I am very proud of what I've accomplished, even if I might fall just short of my goal. My next post will be on the books I did manage to read this year and there are some that I am delighted I did get around to reading, and some new ones that thrilled me.

Meanwhile, Gentle Reader, let me know - are you happy with your reading year?  Is there anything you are really looking forward to coming out in 2012?

I hope you are finding some reading time today, on this Sunday before Christmas!