Sunday Salon 13.09
It can't really be past 1.00pm, can it? But it is. I am now reading INGLEDOVE by Marly Youmans. I have read a few of Marly's books already so I know I am in for a treat. There is something about Marly's writing that floats. It is light and springs along and yet is beautiful and deep at the same time. I like things that seem to have contradictory natures. Marly describes the characters in her book like this: 'light and dark' and strangely I think I know exactly what she means. There is that look that some people have - as though underneath they are dark but on top they are bleached - either by the sun or by something else they have seen.
At the moment the characters are floating in a boat above a drowned village - which is a place where they used to live. That is such an evocative idea. One of the characters, a girl called Ingledove, imagines that people are still there, walking around, going about their business.
The descriptions are beautiful because Marly is another poet, and it is easy to tell:
'Arteries of copper branched through the slopes, some of the veins almost thirty feet wide, with metal so pure it could be moulded by hand.'and:
'...a great upside-down money tree, its center trunk sunk more than two thousand feet into the ground ...Gold nuggets were the berries on the branches...'Excellent stuff. If I were a child with this book it would be one of the ones I would read again and again.
I am going to have to stop now for the chores and do some writing of my own but I hope to be back later...
posted by Clare Dudman at 1:09 pm
13 Comments:
Another writer I haven't come across, but another that I feel I should look out for. Thank you Clare.
Yes, indeed, it sounds just up Jenny's street-- is it at a level that a 12 year old would enjoy, Clare?
Yes, Ann and Maxine, it's excellent - Marly is a really good writer. If Jenny enjoys fantastical tales involving quests I should think she would like both of Marly's children's books very much. As an adult I'm enjoying it very much too.
This sounds wonderful but I've never heard of the writer. Oh, reading Ann's comments I see she hasn't either, so that's reassuring! Would it be suitable for a 13-year old boy, do you think? If not, no matter, I'd read it for myself.
Yes,Litlove, I think few people have heard of Marly Youmans, which is a shame because she is an excellent writer. I think it would be perfectly suitable for a 13 year old boy. It combines adventure and a little mysticism. Diana Wynn Jones says it is a marvellous book too. In fact she says it is 'breathtakingly wonderful'.
Clare, it sounds like a truly magical book. I've never heard of her either. Is this an adult book? it doesn't really matter, does it. I was a huge Diana Wyn Jones fan as a kid, so if she likes it that's enough for me. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
I am unbelievably intrigued. The snip its of Youmans' writing that you have included have sunk their claws into me and now I really must read her work.
I'm delighted by your response! Yes, please do take a look. It's wonderful stuff.
that is really a neat idea.
I know of such a place here. They flooded a whole valley in the 30s. Now we have cheap power. Its really weird to think that there are grave yards and farms underneath all that water.
Yes, S - they drowned some villages over here too (in Wales) for reservoirs and that too has proved a source of stories. It seems like watery places fascinate us...and also there's the sadness of drowning the centuries's worth of peoples'lives.
S sounds a bit creepy to me. I don't believe I'd be able to swim in something like that. Now that I think about it, it sounds like something Steven King could play with.
Clare,
The galiquan Susanna just wrote me that you were reading one of my books. Thank you from one member of the Mutual Admiration Society to another!
Yes, Amber, a bit creepy - but a creepiness I love.
And Marly, yes, still loving it - infact it just gets better and better.
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