Alan Garner's Literary Fiction and Nonfiction

[Extollager]

By that heading, I mean that this thread is for the discussion of the following works, plus any appropriate works that Garner might publish in the future:

The Stone Book Quartet: The Stone Book, Granny Reardun, The Aimer Gate, Tom Fobble's Day

Strandloper

Thursbitch

Boneland

The Voice That Thunders (essays)

This thread it is not intended for discussion, except incidentally, of The Wierdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath, Elidor, The Owl Service, or even Red Shift, nor of Garner's retellings of folktales, etc.

 

[Wruter]

Given the fact that Garner is in his eighties and publishes about once per decade on average I think we'll be lucky to see another book from him. And in what might have been his last interview he talked about the nine novels forming a complete cycle, beginning with Weirdstone and coming full circle with Boneland.

I'm curious as to why you regard The Stone Book Quartet as literary but not Red Shift.

As powerful as the later works you've listed are I find myself hesitant to reread any of them now. Thursbitch in particular was quite harrowing.

 

[Extollager]

I decided not to include Red Shift because I think it would get more discussion as "science fiction" than as "literary fiction," for which this section of Chrons is set apart, and because I was much afraid that if I did admit Red Shift here, discussion of it would swamp discussion of the books that I've listed.

My hunch is that most Chrons people haven't read any of the books I've listed for the present thread, except maybe for the Stone Book sequence. Personally, I completed a reading of Strandloper as well as the Stone Book volumes, but could not persist with Thursbitch and Boneland. I confess that I started and glanced around in Thursbitch and came upon a passage in which some people of ancient times are having some kind of rite, and it seemed silly to me ("The Mothers! The Mothers!"), and that was enough: I returned the book to the library. But I know that very high claims have been made for the books I've listed for this topic. Perhaps discussion will prod some of the rest of us, including me, to try those books again.

But please, let's not discuss Red Shift here.

 

[Wruter]

I see what you mean about RS, apologies.

Well, I've always seen Strandloper, Thursbitch and Boneland as standing apart from The Stone Book Quartet too, not least because nearly twenty years passed between the release of TSBQ and these three. They're mature Garner, and the first time he uses primarily adult protagonists. The rites you mention in Thursbitch are only a small section near the beginning, after that things get considerably darker. There's also a prominent "science fiction" element so maybe doesn't quite fit with your terms for this thread either. If I had to recommend one it would be Strandloper, and that's the one I most want to read again, too. Boneland, of all Garner's work, probably requires the most metatextual knowledge to fully appreciate (which is really saying something).

 

[hitmouse]

I really enjoyed Boneland. I think it loses something without Wierdstone and Moon, which are a bit more than simple children's stories. The whole idea of the sleeping hero is important to these books, as is the particular landscape of Alderley Edge.

I read Boneland fairly shortly before reading The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. Quite an interesting contrast.

 

[Extollager]

 

[HareBrain]

The Voice That Thunders is a great collection, and I'd recommend anyone to read it.

I think we can add the recent Treacle Walker to this list, especially now it's been long-listed for the Booker Prize. Anyone else here read it?

 

[Extollager]

Happy birthday this past 17 October to Alan Garner, now 90 years old. He has a new book:

Powsels and Thrums by Alan Garner - Little Toller Books

In this lyrical and revelatory memoir, Alan Garner, Booker shortlisted author of Treacle Walker, traces the line of his life: from a working-class childhood in the landscape of Cheshire during World War II, through a grammar school education and on to the University of Oxford, and then home to...

www.littletoller.co.uk