Silent Saturday - say it with pictures

Review: The River King by Alice Hoffman

Cover of The River King

The River King by Alice Hoffman

Synopsis:

The book is set in Haddan, a small town in Massachusetts situated on the river Haddan, the town’s mystical waterway. The comunity is divided into two parts: permanent inhabitants, born and bred there, and people working at the Haddan School, a prestigious institution for rich kids. These two parts never intermingle; it seems they are more secluded from each other than the Cappulets and the Montagues in Verona. We get to know the rules through the eyes of four characters: Carlin Leander, a fifteen-year-old swimming scholarship girl who intends never to return to her neglecting mother, Betsy Chase, a young photography teacher just engaged but still unsure about what is best for her future, August Pierce, a troubled loner who strives to survive his first year at school where nobody tolerates his weirdness and Abel Grey, a very handsome policeman who tends to be too inquisitive for his own good and too distracted to endure any long-term relationship. The narration swirls in loops and circles, not unlike the currents of a river, taking us forwards and backwards in time. We find out what disaster of a marriage Annie Howe, the wife of the first headmaster, dr. George Howe, had to endure just because she dared to cross the invisible barrier - she was a local girl and her husband belonged to a better society.

When the body of August is found in the river by local boys playing truant, a number of events is set in motion. Both communities are shocked but for different reasons. As the policemen have to visit the school several times, Abel meets Betsy and falls for her with unexpected intensity (male menopause approaching?). On the other hand Carlin can’t find peace of mind, accusing herself of pushing poor August into suicide – she has started to go out with another boy although she knew August was hopelessly in love with her and she reciprocated the feeling to some extend. Was it really a suicide, though? Only Abel, struggling with the shadow of his own brother's suicide, takes murder into account. As usual, nobody seems to be really interested in solving the mystery (if there is one, that is). Will the maverick policeman have enough stamina to prove his theory against everybody else? Will Betsy break her engagement with a very promising young history professor to follow her true love? The story unravels as people make their choices among half-domesticated swans and the scent of roses, Annie Howe’s all time favourite flowers.

What I liked:

The pace of narration, rather languid and dreamlike at the beginning, unexpectedly drags you into the world of small town weirdness and keeps you firmly within, although it is meandering too much now and then. The language is really elegant, the descriptions – almost hauntingly alluring. You simply find yourself on a river bank under willows listening to the flow of water and watching the waves – a relaxing experience but not without pangs of sorrow now and then. The story of Annie Howe’s life and the struggles of other romantic couples, especially Carlin and Gus, were presented in a truly piercing way.

What I didn’t like:

If you are into crime mysteries and suspense more than romance and mysticism (it is my case), this novel won’t meet all of your expectations. The death of August Pierce would appear suspicious even for a beginner detective in his or her teens with just one good eye. You only wonder why it took Abel so long to solve it (right, he was deeply in love and his methods were rather unorthodox but still…). What’s more, the character of Abel never persuaded me completely – the guy is so wrapped up in his own problems and so inapt for leading a normal life that you must start wondering if Betsy really notices in him something more than just gorgeous body and blue eyes .Also some of the supposed main points of the story were never fully explained – when an author does such a thing the book leaves me always tetchy.

The final verdict:

I am a bit conflicted about this book but I might give it another chance to charm me. You must be in the right mood to read such a many-layered morality tale and the season is an important factor too. Summer is fine, autumn/fall would be even better, though.

Thoughtful Thursday - magic

 I would like to discuss magic and its place in literature. Here are some quotes I've chosen:

I confess that Magic teacheth many superfluous things, and curious prodigies for ostentation; leave them as empty things, yet be not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are for the profit of men -- for the turning away of evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving of life, honor, or fortune -- may be done without offense to God or injury to religion, because they are, as profitable, so necessary.

HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, Three Books of Occult Philosophy or Magic

Magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep presentiment of the powers of science.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays

 The trouble with magic is that there's too much it just can't fix. When things go wrong, glimpsing junkyard faerie and crows that can turn into girls and back again doesn't help much. The useful magic's never at hand. The three wishes and the genies in bottles, seven-league boots, invisible cloaks and all. They stay in the stories, while out here in the wide world we have to muddle through as best we can on our own.

CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. 

Arthur C. Clarke

My questions:

• Does magic in books disturb you in any way?
• Do you think that children and their parents should avoid reading books which feature supernatural world and  demons/witchcraft/spiritual entities/ magic spells ?
• Why, in your  opinion, so many children's books like Harry Potter or the Bartimaeus series have been lately accused of spreading unchristian ideas and e.g removed from school libraries as a result ? Do you think the protection of children has been really the main reason behind such actions ?

Image by Okinawa Soba (In Asia and Africa until August) via Flickr

 

Wishful Wednesday July 7

Today I am wishing for "How I became a famous novelist" by Steve Hely. Well, who wouldn't like to be one? That's why some tips might come in handy, especially if they are presented in a very witty way. I haven't read it but I wish I could!!

 

Cover of How I Became a Famous Novelist

Amazon.com Review

Steve Hely's satiric novel masquerades as the tell-all memoir of Pete Tarslaw, author of the runaway bestseller The Tornado Ashes Club who's become a lit-world pariah. Two years out of college, Pete still moons after the brilliant Polly Pawson, who dropped him post-graduation for law school. His hygiene and motivation have degraded such that he's accumulating beer bottles next to his bed as convenient substitutes for the toilet. His dubious job transforming the convoluted prose of wealthy foreign students into earnest college entrance essays depresses him, more for its lack of prestige than any ethical implications. When Polly announces her engagement in a gleeful mass email, Pete's desire to upstage her at the wedding inflames his obsession with the fame, fortune, and female attention enjoyed by bestselling authors--clever charlatans, in his estimation. What follows is Pete's exposé of the Machiavellian tactics he employed in creating and selling a maudlin mess of a book. It lands him a spot on the New York Times bestsellers list (hilariously parodied by Hely) and an unwisely candid prime-time TV interview, in which his theories on authors as con artists spark a book-world feud, spike his Amazon sales rank, and force him into a literary showdown at a Texan book festival. Along the way, no one connected to books--writers, writing teachers, lit agents, publishers, critics, book buyers--gets off unskewered by Hely's rapier pen (and readers may wonder, on occasion, if Steve Hely has employed Tarslawian strategies in his own bid for a slot on the bestsellers lists). But out of the irony emerges something that feels like genuine reverence for great books, and for those who write out of honesty. For fellow book lovers weary of tracking book sales trends, Hely's wrap-up might feel like a catharsis. --Mari Malcolm

Tuesday Teaser

 

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Should be Reading:

This week I would like to present a fragment from "The River King" by Alice Hoffman. I am reading it right now.

News traveled quickly at Haddan and by noon most people knew there had been a death. After the initial course of hearsay and gossip, people overloaded on rumours and simply shut down. All across campus there was silence in unexpected places.

Review:"Ptolemy's Gate" by Jonathan Stroud

Review: Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud

Synopsis

In the final installments of the Bartimaeus series we finally find out the identity of  the previous rebellions' masterminds and why the djinni Bartimaeus was so partial to the form of a certain Egyptian boy. First things first, though.

SPOILER WARNING

If you haven’t read the first and the second part of this series yet and you value highly an unspoiled reading experience, it would be advisable to put off the lecture of this synopsis as it does contain several spoilers. I tried to limit them as much as possible but I had to mention some facts simply in order to keep the synopsis logical and coherent.

After unravelling the Golem plot against the Prime Minister successfully, Nathaniel/John Mandrake became even more powerful than before. Although only seventeen, he is now a fully-fledged, independent magician, the youngest ever Minister of Information (or rather Disinformation – honestly some his moves reminded me of the infamous Joseph Goebbels…), the member of the Council - in short one of the most influential people in magical London. He owns a delightful villa in a pleasant quarter, he commands several powerful djinni and minor magicians as well, he is constantly invited to parties and performances. What's  more, women court him and fawn on him, even those influencial ones, like Jane Farrar. Any teenager's paradise? Hardly. In fact, Nathaniel has never been so lonely and in a greater danger to boot.
The suave, ruthless and unerring John Mandrake persona suits him ill, although he is hardly avare of it. He must constantly watch his back - his colleagues wouldn’t spit on him if he were on fire. He is constantly overworked, having unofficially much more responsibilities than a mere propaganda job and, as the parties and theatricals are simply compulsory for every member of the government, he hardly finds one free moment to rest and think. What’s more, Nathaniel’s most precious slave djinni, Bartimaeus, is now as weak as a kitten due to the prolonged bondage to the material world. The young minister, afraid of many possible implications (Bartimaeus knows his birth-name and might spill the beans on him if summoned by another magician) desperately wants his slave-friend around all the time, although such a treatment might exhaust the djinni in question to death.
Rupert Devereaux, the Prime Minister and Nathaniel's immediate superior, is becoming more and more paranoid when it comes the his personal safety and the loyalty of other magicians. Instead of ruling the empire he sets his ministers at variance (so nobody gains the upper hand) and goes often to the theatre as the most popular magician-playwright, Quentin Makepeace, is his closest buddy. Devereaux clearly tries to forget about all troubles, even those he really shouldn’t forget for his own sake - the most dangerous rebellion is quietly brewing in the background again and its nature is so shocking that even the cleverest magicians couldn’t have predicted it. Or maybe they could, had they been a little bit less bigheaded and less occupied by their internal feuding.

The magical British empire is also in dire straits – the war with America is at a standstill, with more and more casualties every day. Normal people – the Commoners – have started to protest on the streets; they’ve had enough of war effort and magical exploitation, no matter what propaganda lies Mandrake's employees have been spreading around; what’s more, some Commoners, especially children, discover they have a kind of resilience to magical activities. Add to this the fact that one of the conspirators, who previously had taken an active part in both plots, haven’t been unmasked and imprisoned yet and you might understand why Nathaniel is so wound up.

Meanwhile Kitty, having now two false identities courtesy of the family of Hyrnek, works for an elderly magician, Mr Button during the day and as a barmaid at night. She hasn’t left London, although her friends would have made it easy for her; she has her own agenda - she wants to discover more about the nature of spiritual entities such as Bartimaeus. Kitty, having still  in mind her previous chat with the djinni, simply doesn’t understand why magicians enslave the sources of their power instead of cooperating with them peacefully. Is it really impossible (because too dangerous)? Haven’t anybody tried it before? Well, in fact there was one exception.
We are told more about the unique bond which used to link Bartimaeus and a boy-magician, Ptolemy, living in Alexandria  in the second century BC. Although just in his teens, Ptolemy had been more powerful than an ordinary wizard, consecrating all his life to studying the Other Place and spiritual entities, inhabiting it. He actually befriended his djinnis, asking them questions and never wanting their protection or any other services. He also visited the Other Place more than once - a feat no other magician has achieved so far. Uncharacteristically, Bartimaeus and other demons did plenty of things for him unasked, saving his life many times and helping ordinary people with their problems. Unfortunately Ptolemy became too absorbed in his studies to see a real danger approaching. His cousin, a drunken, blundering crown prince, jealous of the fact that Ptolemy was more popular among people of Alexandria than him, decided to murder the boy. Bartimaeus and other djinnis guarding Ptolemy, urged him to leave and hide but he turned their advice down as he couldn’t possibly leave his beloved library. When the worst came to the worst, the boy dismissed Bartimaeus in the final gesture of friendship (the djinni didn’t want to leave and, heavily outnumbered, would have been killed for sure) and died alone. To honour the memory of his only human friend so far, Bartimaeus often takes the form of the Egyptian boy while being summoned to the material world. Kitty, to her utter disbelief, is the first to discover why he does so.

Will Bartimaeus ever enjoy such a intimate relationship again? Will Nathaniel meet Kitty and finally thank her for saving his life? What will become of the British empire and its quarreling magicians?

What I liked:

It is a thrilling finale indeed. The chapters presenting the Bartimaeus’s point of view I found once again the best and the story of his friendship with young Ptolemy- very moving and inspiring. I also loved the fact that the author didn’t forget about one single character which had been introduced in previous books – for example we finally find out the name of the mysterious mercenary, so resilient to magic and instrumental in all of the rebellions attempted. I  fully appreciated the scene in which Jessica Whitwell (white-haired, cleverer version of Cruella) was the only government member who put up a fight and showed some backbone in time of crisis - her male colleagues just meekly accepted their fate. Now the ending…well, not every author would dare to end his or her successful series this way for sure - it was a huge surprise to me. Not revealing what happened to Nathaniel, Kitty and Bartimaeus, I just would like to say that after reading the whole series for the first time I was out of sorts for almost a week. On the other hand, I suppose this kind of ending was only too logical so after the rereading I think I am a bit more comfortable with it.

What I didn’t like:

Once again: I know it is a children’s series and there’s probably a set limit when it comes to the number of pages but in my very humble and biased opinion the author might have tried to show more of the Ptolemy’s personal history. He set this character well in time, that’s true, but kind of forgot about the real Ptolemys, a very colourful Greek dynasty with great narrative potential, which used to rule in Egypt after the era of pharaohs. Let me present a short excerpt of the historical background which, in my view, might have been exposed in the books more ( I based it on the Wikipedia entry, so it will be nothing fancy or too scholarly I assure you).

The uncle of the young Ptolemy from the book (let’s call him Ptolemy-magician for the clarity’s sake) would be no one else than Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II, nicknamed Physcon (“"Sausage", "Potbelly" or "Bladder") for his obesity. Nice, isn’t it? His complicated career started in 170 BC, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes invaded Egypt, captured his brother Ptolemy VI Philometor, the alleged father of Ptolemy-magician (btw the whole family wasn’t into fancy names so they needed nicknames to differentiate) and let him continue as a puppet monarch. Then Alexandria chose Ptolemy Euergetes as king. The evil and degenerated crown prince would be Ptolemy IX Soter II or Lathyros ("grass pea"). His story is practically an ideal material for a separate book (but perhaps not a children’s book when you come to think about it). At first he was chosen by his mum, Cleopatra III to be her co-regent (his father Ptolemy VIII wished that she would rule with one of her sons after his death and she complied), though she was more forced to choose him by the Alexandrians – apparently he was quite popular at the beginning. Continuing the tradition of pharaohs, he married his sister Cleopatra IV, but his mother pushed her out and replaced her with his younger sister Cleopatra Selene. Later, she claimed that he tried to kill her, and successfully deposed him, putting her favorite son Alexander on the throne to rule with her. However, she later grew tired of the now Ptolemy X and deposed him, putting Ptolemy IX back on the throne- quite a merry-go-round. She was soon murdered by Ptolemy X, who took the throne again. He was then killed in battle, and Ptolemy IX reigned until his own death. In Alexandria, Ptolemy IX, replaced the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great with a glass one, and melted the original down in order to strike emergency gold issues of his coinage. The citizens of Alexandria were outraged at this and soon after, Ptolemy IX was killed. As you see, the righteous wrath of people is something difficult to bear.

The final verdict:

All in all I love this series far better that “Harry Potter”. Neither of its parts really let me down – it is funny, inventive and well thought-out from the beginning to the very end. Trully magical.

Silent Saturday...say it with pictures!