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A review by lordenglishssbm
Boneland by Alan Garner
3.0
There's something intriguing and beautiful about this book, even at a conceptual level. Garner wrote the last book in the series back in the 60s, and returned to the world 50 years later for a follow-up. The last book was written for children, while this one is written for adults.
It's a book about growing up. About how childhood is lost to adulthood, and how our memories of the time are recontextualized by who we are. About coming to terms with a past we can't quite understand. It is what The Magicians aspires to be, and it does it all in a relatively small number of pages. It is a bit repetitive, but that can be forgiven since it follows a man unable to move on from a thing which may or may not have happened to him. It was an appropriate choice to make it repetitive, and the story never unfolds too slowly or too quickly.
Garner's prose has not lost its edge, but the pity is that even now his characters still hew too closely to archetypes for their own good. They develop and interact, but aside from some remarkable bits of dialogue are never truly surprising. It's remarkable that he can take these ideas as far as he has, but I wish he had strengthened his fundamentals a bit more.
It's a bit stunning to see an old middle-grade book series end like this one, and I would not have done it, but it's a testament to Garner's skill that this somehow it feels right.
It's a book about growing up. About how childhood is lost to adulthood, and how our memories of the time are recontextualized by who we are. About coming to terms with a past we can't quite understand. It is what The Magicians aspires to be, and it does it all in a relatively small number of pages. It is a bit repetitive, but that can be forgiven since it follows a man unable to move on from a thing which may or may not have happened to him. It was an appropriate choice to make it repetitive, and the story never unfolds too slowly or too quickly.
Garner's prose has not lost its edge, but the pity is that even now his characters still hew too closely to archetypes for their own good. They develop and interact, but aside from some remarkable bits of dialogue are never truly surprising. It's remarkable that he can take these ideas as far as he has, but I wish he had strengthened his fundamentals a bit more.
It's a bit stunning to see an old middle-grade book series end like this one, and I would not have done it, but it's a testament to Garner's skill that this somehow it feels right.