Curious, Healing

Books about healing, business, and fun

fun

“The Golden Key” by George MacDonald

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Illustrated by: Maurice Sendak

Recommended to me by: rushthatspeaks

In the afterword, written December 1966, W. H. Auden says, “To me, George MacDonald’s most extraordinary, and precious, gift is his ability, in all his stories, to create an atmosphere of goodness about which there is nothing phony or moralistic.”

My experience of this brief book was the opposite. I saw goodness equated with whiteness several times, and also with beauty. I saw a moralistic and wholly unnecessary aside about cleanliness.

In the (lovely) illustrations, the girl is always leaning on someone or being led or rescued, where the boy is alone or leading or standing sturdily as he talks with someone. The only exception is the last image, where she sits waiting and he approaches.

For all of that it is a whimsical, lilting story, quickly read, with deeper themes of long seeking, endurance, and transformation.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The Bards of Bone Plain” by Patricia McKillip

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As much as I loved some of McKillip’s early books, I think I’ve aged out of her target audience. This book seemed put together from bits and pieces of past books, with many cookie-cutter characters and an emphasis on the young adults falling in love and pairing off at the end – heterosexually, of course.

The steampunk trams and cars are new. The princess who goes on archaeological digs is new. Harpists, towers, plains, schools, robes, riddles, shape-shifting, and power tied to the land are all familiar themes, and they seem tossed in piecemeal rather than woven together as they were in the Riddle-Master series.

Several beautiful, musically talented women characters are almost indistinguishable, and they’re all responsible for cooking on top of their other duties. The queen is solely focused on her archaeologist daughter’s “improper” clothing, and an older princess is solely focused on her upcoming wedding.

The book is interesting enough to read to the end, and has some themes around failure and success worth thinking about, but overall I was disappointed.

Available at bookshop.org.

“The Red Tree” by Shaun Tan

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book cover

Recommended to me by: Mely’s evocative review

A nearly wordless picture book filled with intricate oil and acrylic paintings showing a small, lonely girl’s inner world. A red leaf lies somewhere on each page. Searching for it led me deeper into the paintings’ quirky details.

To Mely, it’s about depression. To one child, it was about worries. To me, it looks like the effect of child abuse, splitting from one’s own body and feeling disconnected from the world.

Highly recommended.

See the author’s website for more images from the book and discussion about it.

Available at bookshop.org as part of the newly released Lost and Found omnibus edition.

“The Necessary Beggar” by Susan Palwick

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Recommended to me by: Loved Susan Palwick’s first book Flying in Place

The Necessary Beggar begins with a flurry of long hyphenated names and fantastical pronouncements. “It’s an allegory,” I told myself, and kept reading. The story soon descends into grimness at a US internment camp, but does not lose its fairy tale tone.

Even at 6 years old, the central character Zamatryna-Harani Erolorit is super-competent and aware. She continues to excel at everything, including emotional self-control, growing up as an American teen.

Alcoholism, Christianity, family ties, lies, despair, and unlikely salvations weave through the book beneath the fairy tale names and gritty details of daily life. I never felt fully drawn in to either the daily details or the magical salvations.

I’m still puzzling over the allegory. They use prayer rugs in the fairy tale land – does that mean they represent Muslims? The evangelical Christians are not shown in 100% positive light, but they do get a lot of air time, and they do dramatically rescue the family.

The fairy tale extended family stays together no matter what. Impetuous “true love” both imperils and saves them. The very elaborateness of the book’s plot contradicts any conclusions about “love conquers all.”

Available at bookshop.org.

“Something Rich and Strange” by Patricia McKillip

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Some 30 years ago, I picked up an unassuming paperback copy of Patricia McKillip’s “The Riddle-Master of Hed” at a library book sale. When I finished it, I held the closed book in my hands, paused, then turned to the first page to begin again. I’ve been a fan of that series, and of standalone “The Forgotten Beasts of Eld” ever since.

Sadly, “Something Rich and Strange” doesn’t live up to that high standard. Most of McKillip’s books are dreamy and impressionistic. This one is too, but the dreaminess is forced to serve a moralistic message about environmental pollution. Even though I agree with the need for awareness and action, it was unsatisfying to see characters manipulated into acknowledging it.

The book was written as a response to macabre woodland faerie illustrations by Brian Froud. Since this book is set beside and in the Pacific Ocean, the illustrations interrupt rather than support the narrative. The cover is pretty, though.

The book is out of print in the hardback illustrated edition.

“Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword” by Barry Deutsch

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Subtitle: Yet Another Troll-Fighting 11-Year-Old Orthodox Jewish Girl

Recommended to me by: Barry Deutsch’s Alas, A Blog

A graphic novel set in an Orthodox Jewish town called Hereville, in a blended family with many girls and one little brother. The facial expressions and other details in the drawings are captivating – I read the book twice and noticed a lot that I’d missed the first time. The characters are realistic even while engaged in unrealistic adventures.

The strict rules of Orthodox Judaism are included in the story, with only the occasional pictorial editorial comment, such as the bored expressions of the youth having “vibrant, passionate discussions” on Shabbat. Yiddish terms are translated in footnotes.

The fantastic elements of witch encounters and troll fights contrast oddly with the Orthodox background, sibling arguments about reputation, and a step-mother’s efforts to manage a large family. The ending is decidedly unexpected.

Mirka is portrayed as reaching for a knife, sword, or tree-branch to violently solve her problems. She is also portrayed as being so immersed in Jewish culture that she didn’t recognize a pig when she saw one.

I’m not sure what to think of the book. It draws me in, and at the same time leaves me wondering if the author’s message is subtly derogatory toward Judaism. While I wouldn’t want to live in an Orthodox community myself, I don’t want to see one exposed to ridicule, either.

Barry Deutsch is a cartoonist in Portland, Oregon.

Available at bookshop.org.