Book Twenty

[ellyssian]

Book #20: The Summer Country by jhetley

I remember picking this up off the shelf once or twice and then setting it down. My wife - who considers herself *the* de Lint fan (I just tag along) - also did the same. Quotes from de Lint are all over the book, and that's a good thing. Because James is from Maine, so are the quotes comparing him to Stephen King, which probably explains why I put it down. Just to clarify: I think King is a great guy, does loads of good stuff for his hometown from all I've heard, but I do not - try as I may - like his writing. I even like the introduction he did on the one Sandman collection, about story and how important it was and so on - but comparing an author to him will most likely result in me ignoring the author. Despite all that, I still kept picking up The Summer Country and then setting it back down. Even read - and liked - the first chapter (forgot I had done that when I bought it and brought it home - hmmm, this seems familiar, do we already have it? Since our books are still packed, we may actually have it. I'd say I don't mind buying two copies because it was that good, but I'm still relating all the events leading up to the purchase, and would be getting ahead of myself to include any review-ish comments.)

Some folks on TH mentioned good things about the book at least two or three times, and I decided I would pick it up no matter what. Of course, at that exact moment in time everything aligned and suddenly the only Hetley to be found in any Lehigh Valley bookstores was The Winter Oak, and I prefer to start at the beginning. Around that time I started reading jhetley and I was going to bookstores just to look for The Summer Country - in and out, which is unusual for me in a bookstore; usually more time and money is involved, but there was a specific purpose here. And then there it was - on the bookshelf at B&N. I re-read the first chapter that night, which was kind of unfair, as I had several things lined up ahead of it. I had intended to read the first paragraph or so, and blew through the chapter instead.

Kind of like Friday night - The Summer Country was next in line, and I had intended to read a chapter before going to sleep. I made it through all but the last two or so chapters. Deb came up, insisting the light gets turned out, so I suffered through until Saturday before polishing off the last bit. As this is going on long enough, and still with hardly any content resembling a real review I offer up: At turns beautiful and brutal, but fittingly so. An excellent read. I will now be hunting for The Winter Oak, and we shall see if it proves as elusive. And for the last final bit of story: for the past two nights I have picked up and set down de Lint's The Wild Wood because it does not feel right to rush into something else. I want to give The Summer Country some time to settle.

Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge and me own journal

Comments

[wolfette]

Yanno, tis an amusing co-incidence that this post is right next to jhetley's post on my FL today.