Book Log: The Charles De Lint Festival
Books 37, 38 & 39, are all Charles DeLint novels. I've been on a bit of a kick, I guess!
Awhile back I read Somewhere to be Flying and have been wanting to read more of his work, now I have, and I am so glad that I am discovering him after he's written 20 novels. This means I just have to hunt them down - not wait for them to be written!
Most recently I read (37) Trader after starting (38) Forests of the Heart. I had started Forests but couldn't find it in the mess in my house and went to Trader instead. I liked both of them, but found Trader to be the better of the two. The wriitng was much more beautiful in Trader, the characters more.... whole. The first chapter is absolutely stunning - it reminds me of some of the great existentialist writers: Sartre, Camus. Powerful, disturbing, moving.
Forests is a wonderful tale, and I was happy to spend more time in DeLints city of Newford, but it felt like too much was happening, like he had too many stories to tell and tried to cram it all in to one book. I wonder if this one would have been better served by being a 2 book set. It felt a bit abrupt, schismed. Though perhaps that was on purpose. I don't know. But hey, it was still better than a good number of books I've read. His "mediocre" is better than some folk's "great", so I'm not complaining.
Last but not least was The Onion Girl (#39) which I finished last night, staying up way too late to finish it than I really should have on a night when I had work the next day. Who cares. BEAUTIFUL! Just wonderful! I adored this book for the quality of the writing, the powerful story, and the chance to explore the mysteries of some of the people I'd already met in Newford.
For me, this is my favorite thing about his work. I love going back and visiting the place. His books, taken as a whole, are telling the tale of a city and a landscape, that intertwine about one another, inseprable - feeding each other. Roots and leaves.
I plan on hunting more of his work down. I can no longer remember who it was who told me to read him first... was it neilfein? I don't know. But who ever it was: Thank you! You've brought me a new "favorite writer".
N.
Awhile back I read Somewhere to be Flying and have been wanting to read more of his work, now I have, and I am so glad that I am discovering him after he's written 20 novels. This means I just have to hunt them down - not wait for them to be written!
Most recently I read (37) Trader after starting (38) Forests of the Heart. I had started Forests but couldn't find it in the mess in my house and went to Trader instead. I liked both of them, but found Trader to be the better of the two. The wriitng was much more beautiful in Trader, the characters more.... whole. The first chapter is absolutely stunning - it reminds me of some of the great existentialist writers: Sartre, Camus. Powerful, disturbing, moving.
Forests is a wonderful tale, and I was happy to spend more time in DeLints city of Newford, but it felt like too much was happening, like he had too many stories to tell and tried to cram it all in to one book. I wonder if this one would have been better served by being a 2 book set. It felt a bit abrupt, schismed. Though perhaps that was on purpose. I don't know. But hey, it was still better than a good number of books I've read. His "mediocre" is better than some folk's "great", so I'm not complaining.
Last but not least was The Onion Girl (#39) which I finished last night, staying up way too late to finish it than I really should have on a night when I had work the next day. Who cares. BEAUTIFUL! Just wonderful! I adored this book for the quality of the writing, the powerful story, and the chance to explore the mysteries of some of the people I'd already met in Newford.
For me, this is my favorite thing about his work. I love going back and visiting the place. His books, taken as a whole, are telling the tale of a city and a landscape, that intertwine about one another, inseprable - feeding each other. Roots and leaves.
I plan on hunting more of his work down. I can no longer remember who it was who told me to read him first... was it neilfein? I don't know. But who ever it was: Thank you! You've brought me a new "favorite writer".
N.