In lieu of the Wednesday reading meme (because I accomplished basically no reading this past week, except a reread of Pamela Dean's Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary), I'm going to answer
lycoris's December meme question: Tell me about your favourite book that you think I might not have heard of
(
Read more... )
Comments 8
The book I'm reading now, Tinkers has very little plot, and yet I find it hugely compelling. It's the way the characters look at the world, and where they turn their eyes that makes it so.
Yeah, it would be really interesting to think about what makes The Changeling so compelling--because it is.
I'm thinking rachelmanija's category of secret-garden books plays into this too--not that The Changeling or Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary is that kind of a book, but that that category of book also doesn't have the much-touted intro-rising action-climax-denoument structure.
I really loved this, as a concept: I would have loved having it as part of the leafmold of my mind when I was a ( ... )
Reply
It's interesting to think about The Changeling in this context, because I think the least compelling part of the book is the attempt to give in a proper climax: the part where Ivy and Martha get accused of breaking into the school. Obviously it didn't ruin the book for me (and the ending is completely perfect, IMO), but it does bobble a bit there, probably because she's trying to push the story into the "proper" story shape and it doesn't quite fit.
The "leafmold of my mind" bit is a quote from somewhere. I wish I could remember where, because I think it would be something you might like (that's why it took me so long to answer this comment, I've been trying to remember where I read it) 0 but it's flittered out of my mind.
Reply
Reply
But I feel like the execution leaves something to be desired somehow - the neatness of the fact that it was actually Tom who broke in, or something like that. Although I realize that without Tom's confession, the question of guilt would never get resolved - not that the readers would suspect Ivy, but everyone around Martha would, and that would be thoroughly unpleasant.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment