book log: Alan Garner -- Red Shift

[julesjones]

Book log, because I'm going to have to read this again at least once before I can even hope to review it. It's nominally YA, with a fantasy feel to it, first published in 1973. It's not an easy read, in either style or subject matter, but I found it very rewarding, if depressing. There's a good description of Red Shift at Wikipedia.

LibraryThing entry (with reviews)
Red Shift (Collins Voyager) at Amazon UK
Red Shift (Collins Voyager) at Amazon US
at IndieBound"
at Powells

Comments

[shriker-tam.livejournal.com]

I'll have to try to remember this. IIRC I really like the owl Service, back in the mists of time, when I read it.

[julesjones]

LibraryThing now has a wishlist system (as part of Collections) -- it might be worth using that to note books you might want to try later, especially as you can use "private comments" to make a note for yourself of why you wanted it.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I read this when it first came out and hated it and then I read it again a couple of years ago and finally 'got' it - or at least I think so. With a book as obscure and veiled as this one I'm not even sure that Alan Garner completely gets it.

Like many people I love his early books - 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and 'The Moon of Gomrath' will always remain my favourites, I think. I never really liked 'The Owl Service' and was appalled that it got the Carnegie Medal (Best Children's Book of the Year) - not because of its quality, but because I didn't really think it was a book for children (despite being about childtren). (I had the same problem with Watership Down a few years later, but that's another story.)

Red Shift followed on from The Owl Service, but was ten times more opaque in its meaning. I think it's a book that you have to know 'how' to read. If you come to it from Briaisngamen and Gomrath you'll be deeply disappointed but if you come to it with no preconceptions and absorb it for the sheer quality of the imagery and the concept then it's a rewarding read. It's one of those novels you almost have to approach as poetry. It's definitely not a linear story - possibly not even a story at all.

[julesjones]

It's the first of his books that I've read -- I don't think I've ever read even the Weirdstone. I suspect that helped, because I didn't have any particular expectations. But you're right about approaching it more as poetry than as a novel. The use of language and imagery is stunning, but he makes you work for it.

It was interesting reading it while the recent discussion about litcrit and cultural cringe was going on at Making Light, because it's a fine example of a book that is very hard work but (potentially) worth it, and which you're likely to bounce right off if you don't come to it already equipped with the right toolset.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I totally agree. 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen' and 'The Moon of Gomrath' (and Elidor, which I like less but many people like more) are early works, straightforward children's adventures with magic and breathtaking, heart-stopping adventure (and well worth reading), but from The Owl Service onwards his whole thrust is towards 'literary fiction' and away from plain storytelling. I haven't read anywhere near enough of his, but I can recommend 'The Stone Book Quartet.' It's slight in terms of word-count, but dense and rich in terms of content.