Book report

[shewhomust]

I mentioned that I'd been reading A Crowd of Bone, and nineweaving took me up on that, saying: I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Is it Northern enough?

So I've thought about that, and I've gathered together my nerve, and here's the answer:

I loved it, and it continues to hang around in my mind. All that follows should be taken in that light, because I am capable of becoming so entwined in why and how I liked something that I may forget to say that I did like it.

And the way I liked A Crowd of Bone is in the way I might like a visually ravishing film in a language I don't speak very well. It took me a while to tune my ear to the language, and to understand as much of it as I was able to understand. Even then, there were things that escaped me, words I didn't know or cultural references I didn't pick up. That's OK, I don't mind knowing that there is more there, for when I reread it. I've dipped my toe in the on-line interviews, but the one about Jack Daw's Pack wanted to tell me things I'd rather find out by reading the story, so I backed off: but I infer that some of what I don't understand is the richness of the folklore and language, some of it is Cloudish. That's good...

The only thing that bothered me at all was a nagging sense that I was enjoying this for the wrong reasons, in a slightly self-congratulatory way (I know what a riddle is. I recognise the harp of bones. Hang on, isn't that an Andy Goldsworthy?...) and that my awareness of the words - especially some repeated key terms - was coming between me and the story; but then, what are words, if not the thing that mediates between me and the story? So I relaxed to enjoy myself with a clear conscience!

Is it Northern enough? Now, there's a question: and the smart-alec reply would be that despite straying up as far as the Cheviot (Cold Law, was it?), its centre of gravity feels very Yorkshire, which from where I sit is south. But I think you and sovay use Northern in a technical sense which I don't know; rather than guess, I will say that it felt very English and slightly Arcadian: from Lark Rise to the hills above the Forest of Arden...

So clearly I need to go on from here to read Moonwise: will there be copies at Glasgow (I won't be there myself, but could try commissioning a friend...)?

And, since it seems appropriate, here's another lunar cycle.

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Hints?

No need: go look (http://www.livejournal.com/users/shewhomust/22729.html).