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A review by angus_murchie
Boneland by Alan Garner
5.0
Brilliant, mind bending and frustrating in equal measures. Requires a third reading at least - but I won’t wait 10 years this time.
It’s almost 50 years since I first read Elidor and The Owl Service, 40 since Weirdstone and Gomrath and 10 since I read all Alan Garner’s other books. I don’t think I understood Boneland at all when I first read it, then work got in the way of a reread - and also it absolutely wasn’t the book I dearly wanted it to be back then.
Last week my local Other Worlds Book Club was looking for suggestions for books and I put forward the four named books above because more people deserve to read and fall in love with those stories - everyone else in the club is too young for these to have been popular when they were children. That made me think I really should re-read Boneland. I’ve just finished it again and until Meg, Bert and Fey all disappeared from reality I thought I’d got it this time.
Now I feel like I have to go back and re- read the lot again, including Strandloper for the shaman writing, to try to properly process this. Hopefully I’ll make more sense of Red Shift this time too - but maybe my intrinsic thinking is just too linear to really grasp it all. Emotionally, I love the idea of Old Magic and a fundamental connection between the landscape, ancient legends, life today and recurring time-twisting themes. Logically I think it’s nonsense, and that gives me a sense of loss.
Maybe I’ll never get it - but at least these books have inspired 30 years of fantastic holidays at Avebury/Silbury Hill and all across the Peak District. Colin ran a hell of a long way along the Old Straight Track!
It’s almost 50 years since I first read Elidor and The Owl Service, 40 since Weirdstone and Gomrath and 10 since I read all Alan Garner’s other books. I don’t think I understood Boneland at all when I first read it, then work got in the way of a reread - and also it absolutely wasn’t the book I dearly wanted it to be back then.
Last week my local Other Worlds Book Club was looking for suggestions for books and I put forward the four named books above because more people deserve to read and fall in love with those stories - everyone else in the club is too young for these to have been popular when they were children. That made me think I really should re-read Boneland. I’ve just finished it again and until Meg, Bert and Fey all disappeared from reality I thought I’d got it this time.
Now I feel like I have to go back and re- read the lot again, including Strandloper for the shaman writing, to try to properly process this. Hopefully I’ll make more sense of Red Shift this time too - but maybe my intrinsic thinking is just too linear to really grasp it all. Emotionally, I love the idea of Old Magic and a fundamental connection between the landscape, ancient legends, life today and recurring time-twisting themes. Logically I think it’s nonsense, and that gives me a sense of loss.
Maybe I’ll never get it - but at least these books have inspired 30 years of fantastic holidays at Avebury/Silbury Hill and all across the Peak District. Colin ran a hell of a long way along the Old Straight Track!