Ropes of Sand Review of Books?
Dear all, Vizzini here. Wondering if anyone has read the new Ishiguro. Also, have recently finished Harry Potter--I apologize if I missed any other discussion here--but what did y'all think of it? It was good, but no "Goblet of Fire" if you ask me, and I found a number of the plot developments too predictable. On another note, anyone here working on any children's or YA projects? I understand the Workshop is offering a seminar on it this year and wish one had been in place when we were there.Inconceivable,
Vizzini
posted by VVG @ Wednesday, August 10, 2005
4 Comments:
I never found my way to YA books when I was a kid, but I did read Stephen King incessantly. Does he count?
Stephen King was responsible for Stand By Me, and the cascading vomiting scene was a staple of MY childhood, so I don't see why not...
Jo, as you know I am a lover of the children's literature. (Manaster, where are you on this thread?) Ed Carey's seminar incorporated some great stuff in this vein: Gorey, Pullman... In fact, Ed Carey introduced me to Pullman, and one of the first things I'm going to do when I get settled down is head to the library and get book two... Love Ed Carey!...
I also love The Phantom Tollbooth, A Wrinkle in Time, books by Stephen King's wife (no, they are not good, they are trashy, but they are interesting and involve lots of sports-in-young adults' fiction, something that has always fascinated me) whose name is Tabitha King, hm, Anne Rice, okay, Ivan has a point, this is not children's literature... it does seem that at some point in the past I allowed myself to read substantially more... light reading, shall we call it? Or is that snobbish?
Hm, as a child I read every genre, including fantasy--Diana Wynne Jones, who was sort of a JKR predecessor, was very good. I would venture that far less trash gets published for children than is published for adults, perhaps because the children have parents who do not let them read trash? ... I don't know, but there's an awful lot of trashy adult fantasy, whereas it seems to me (anecdotally, I will admit) that the majority of children's fantasy, and indeed, children's literature, is really quite good.
I also spent some time reading biographies. One of the first biographies I read on my own was that of the woman who was the inspiration for Maria in the Sound of Music. It was in my elementary school library. I guess this was people's idea of a child-appropriate biography? But I never got over how little she looked like Julie Andrews...
Speaking of Julie Andrews, like Ethan Hawke, she is also a writer, but she writes children's books. I'll admit that Mandy was not one of my favorites (too depressing) but I loved Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles (I think under the name Julie Edwards). Also Dahl. I loved Dahl. I was mesmerized by the descriptions of what he had to do at his British boarding school when the prefect wanted toast. (Those caning descriptions... how visceral. Four with the dressing gown on or three with it off?) If you haven't read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (And Six More), it's a Dahl book for in-between-ish readers, and it's got some really interesting short stories in it. There was also an interesting Dahl profile in a recent New Yorker...
Anyway, Ivan, I'd say I'm far more a fan of children's lit than YA, but it's a strange line to draw...
I've been avoiding this thread, Vizzini, as you mention the new Harry Potter. Marc and I have been reading it aloud most evenings (ahhh, the dorkiness of Manastalifanz domesticity). It's taking all my willpower not to read ahead and these days I poke about the internet with great trepidation, fearing spoilers.
But. I can resist this discussion no longer.
Count me among those with a deep affection for children's lit--I would have loved a seminar on it (and would have actually done the readings and shown up for class. I know, shocking workshop behavior.)
Part of the staying power of the books I loved as a child (the Betsy-Tacy series, A Wrinkle in Time, Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, the Edwards books you mention, anything Dahl, and so on) is the fearlessness of their plots. Things happen. Weird, troubling, rewarding, exciting interesting things. Children aren't particularly forgiving readers (or at least I wasn't). If they aren't wondering what happens next, they don't bother to find out. A bit of that lingers--as an adult reader, I absolutely appreciate all the elements you look for in workshop (complex characters, big ideas, stunning turns of phrase, blah blah blah workshopese) but without a solid plot as the backbone I'm never as into a book as perhaps I should be.
Until an ill-fated Women's Studies seminar my senior year of college, I never read many YA books. Part of this, I'm sure, was my own bratty smugness that led me to seek out "grownup" books before I could really begin to understand them. But the larger part is that the YA books I read (both growing up and for the unfortunate Women's Studies seminar) were just not satisfying. They were either packaged lessons (sex bad, choir good, you too will someday get your period) or massively over assigned (yes, I'm looking at you, Lord of the Flies). They tended to rely on caricature (particularly the lesson imparting books) rather than character, which isn't true of the children's literature I love. Those protagonist poppets are surprisingly complex. When they make dumb decisions it comes from character (ie, Mandy doesn't tell about the cottage because she's desperately lonely, Harry goes into the Dep't of Mysteries because he's a cocky little preteen punk), not the author's desire to say: drugs bad, pancakes good.
The only good that came out of the ill-fated women's seminar was my discovery of the YA books by Francesca Lia Block. These are the books I wish I'd known to read as wildly insecure, way too precocious adolescent female. She lets bad things happen to her very human characters, and those bad things are neither sex nor drugs nor swift moralistic punishment for dabbling in said vices. Her young women generally recover, but always by virtue of their own smarts and talent. Her writing is lyrical-to-purple, but a lot of fun, giving entry to a world where drugs are good and pancakes are good. Especially pancakes with blueberries, when you're really fucking high.
I remember a couple more. I got into Mercedes Lackey for a while (fantasy), and I can't believe I forgot The Neverending Story, which is a decent movie for kids, but a really kickass novel.
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