BOOK REVIEW: THE OGHAM WOOD
Cliff Seruntine's THE OGHAM WOOD, published by Avalonia (http://avaloniabooks.co.uk/catalogue/magical-fiction/an-ogham-wood), is a classic form of tale: a man beset by terrible circumstances who comes to a place where he is an outsider, and gradually learns lessons about the past and his place in the scheme of things. Sweyn deSauld is coping, barely, with PTSD stemming from the tragic death of his beautiful, mysterious wife. A sailor, he lights out into the Pacific, but soon find himself far off course and approaching the island home of his late wife. Forced to land by the intervention of an unhuman creature, he is obliged to engage with the island community, a group of mixed Irish, Scots and Welsh immigrants who live a life similar to the Amish.
Sweyn finds that he has inherited a 'cottage' - the family home of his late wife. But it's not at all what he expected, and neither are the inhabitants: an ancient retainer, Coppin, and a strange girl who drifts around the woods adjoining the property. And there are some very odd people, and creatures, on the island, too. Slowly, Sweyn begins to find some answers about his dead wife, but they are not answers that he can readily accept...
Stories about people who enter what might loosely be termed the lands of the Celtic Twilight are, by now, a staple of the fantasy genre and it's hard to come across tales which bring much that is new to the party. However, by placing this particular story on the Pacific seaboard, Seruntine gives an entirely different flavour to the trope, and I can only describe this as a novel that is more than the sum of its parts. Whilst I have read a lot of this sort of thing, I found THE OGHAM WOOD to be a genuinely gripping read: it's definitely in the line of 'romantic Celtic history' rather than historical reality, but in a way that works. I found the characters engaging: Sweyn is a flawed, but sympathetic hero, the islanders are interesting, and I genuinely cared what happened to the people in this book. It also has a villain who is not a stock 'baddie' and whose behaviour stems from entirely explicable motives. But one of the principal reasons why this was such a compelling read for me were the descriptions of the island itself: it's very evocatively described, and although (were I to see this in a creative writing class) I'd suggest cutting back on adjective use, the style works. It's also a pleasure to read about things one knows nothing about (sailing and making cheese, in this case) but in which the author is obviously expert.
The novel is not without flaws: there are some glitches in viewpoint, a couple of historical issues which need to be ironed out in a second edition (someone is described as having a 'Victorian' viewpoint when he dates from the 18th C: this needs clarifying) and we're told rather too often about Sweyn's anger. But these are minor niggles: the plotting is tight and there is excellent use of drip-feeding information to the reader, the characters come alive and so does the island itself. I'll be reading this one again.
Sweyn finds that he has inherited a 'cottage' - the family home of his late wife. But it's not at all what he expected, and neither are the inhabitants: an ancient retainer, Coppin, and a strange girl who drifts around the woods adjoining the property. And there are some very odd people, and creatures, on the island, too. Slowly, Sweyn begins to find some answers about his dead wife, but they are not answers that he can readily accept...
Stories about people who enter what might loosely be termed the lands of the Celtic Twilight are, by now, a staple of the fantasy genre and it's hard to come across tales which bring much that is new to the party. However, by placing this particular story on the Pacific seaboard, Seruntine gives an entirely different flavour to the trope, and I can only describe this as a novel that is more than the sum of its parts. Whilst I have read a lot of this sort of thing, I found THE OGHAM WOOD to be a genuinely gripping read: it's definitely in the line of 'romantic Celtic history' rather than historical reality, but in a way that works. I found the characters engaging: Sweyn is a flawed, but sympathetic hero, the islanders are interesting, and I genuinely cared what happened to the people in this book. It also has a villain who is not a stock 'baddie' and whose behaviour stems from entirely explicable motives. But one of the principal reasons why this was such a compelling read for me were the descriptions of the island itself: it's very evocatively described, and although (were I to see this in a creative writing class) I'd suggest cutting back on adjective use, the style works. It's also a pleasure to read about things one knows nothing about (sailing and making cheese, in this case) but in which the author is obviously expert.
The novel is not without flaws: there are some glitches in viewpoint, a couple of historical issues which need to be ironed out in a second edition (someone is described as having a 'Victorian' viewpoint when he dates from the 18th C: this needs clarifying) and we're told rather too often about Sweyn's anger. But these are minor niggles: the plotting is tight and there is excellent use of drip-feeding information to the reader, the characters come alive and so does the island itself. I'll be reading this one again.