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A Knot In The Grain And Other Stories (1995)

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories (1995)

Book Info

Genre
Series
Rating
3.7 of 5 Votes: 3
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ISBN
0064406040 (ISBN13: 9780064406048)
Language
English
Publisher
greenwillow books

About book A Knot In The Grain And Other Stories (1995)

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories by Robin McKinley 4 outof 5 starsI just finished reading this collection of short stories by Robin McKinley. Within are included five tales. The first tale: Healer tells the story of Lily, a child born with the magic to heal, but without the gift of speech. Lily, kind and loving, is apprenticed to Jolin to learn the ways of healers. Jolin and Lily become like family to one another, but Lily still feels the loneliness of never finding a love. Then one day a mage named Sahak who has lost his powers comes across Lily and they are able to communicate with each other through mind-speech. Their interactions will teach them about love, courage, and honor. I enjoyed this tale immensely; I’m a sucker for fairy tales and happy endings- and this one filled that perfectly. I give this tale 5 out of 5 stars.The next tale: The Stagman tells the story of Ruen, an orphan princess mistreated by her uncle. I liked this tale, but the ending drove me to distraction. I couldn’t understand (spoilers coming!) why Ruen disappeared- was it because she was unhappy? Did she go back to stay with Luthe and the Stagman? Ambiguous endings like this drive me nuts! I have to give this tale 3 out of 5 stars.The third tale: Touk’s House was a very nice twist on Rapunzel. I enjoyed this tale, although, I couldn’t help but feel that Erana ended up making the decision she made because of her bad experience with the prince. I give this tale 3.5 out 5 stars.The fourth tale: Buttercups, I truly liked. Pos, an old widowed farmer, meets and falls in love with Coral. The two marry and live happily until Pos overhears one of his workers commenting that he thinks Coral just married him for his wealth. This starts a grain of doubt in Pos who begins to wonder if Coral truly loves him. His doubt causes him to do something that seemingly brings tragedy to their farm, but eventually ends in an ending that reaffirms the love they have for one another. I liked this tale a lot and I give it 5 out of 5 stars.The fifth and last tale: A Knot in the Grain, is a modern tale. Annabelle and her family move to a small town. Her forays into the attic reveal a box which magically fulfills her wishes. This tale is a warm story of the possibilities of good coming from sad or difficult situations. I give this tale 4 out of 5 stars.Overall, the collection is a wonderful read- I would recommend it to readers of all ages. I give the whole collection 4 out of 5 stars.

I see the word 'quiet' a lot with reviews of this short story collection, and certainly that is an accurate word. The plots of these stories are often muted, the characters quietly rebelling against expectations. In "Healer," the protagonist Lily is literally quiet in that she is born mute and has never uttered a word. Yet she rebels against expectations by becoming a successful healer in her village. When she meets a former mage, both are changed.In "The Stagman," the princess Ruen's voice and freedom is quieted by her uncle when her parents die, and then her choice is taken away by a mage she thought would help her. But again there is a quiet rebellion that occurs, though only after many decades of acquiescence."Touk's House" combines many fairy tales. When a father steals an herb from a witch's garden to save one of his daughters, he promises to give his pregnant wife's child to the witch to raise. But unlike Rapunzel, the witch is not cruel, and she raises her child, Eranu, like she would her own, along with her son a half-troll. Both the troll and Eranu are quieted by the way society treats them--the troll as a monster, Eranu as a poor woman incapable of choice."Buttercups" also contains fairy tale elements with a fae-flowered field on an otherwise productive farm. When a farmer marries a younger woman, at first they live a happy, productive life together, until the secrets they're hiding from one another threaten their relationship. This story illustrates the power and need of speech in relationships, of not letting the unspoken things come between love.In "A Knot in the Grain," the final story, 16-year-old Annabelle is forced to move to a new town and home, leaving behind her friends and boyfriend. She's silenced in that she's too young to make decisions in the family, but she's also silenced by her shyness and her unwillingness to make others unhappy. But she finds agency in an unexpected place when she discovers a secret room in her new home. This may be my favorite of the stories. The title "A Knot in the Grain" speaks for all the stories--the grain is smooth until the knot appears--a choice made, a quiet rebellion.

Do You like book A Knot In The Grain And Other Stories (1995)?

I do not usually enjoy short stories. It takes a particularly enchanting author to compel me to sit down to a series of short stories (or essays). For me, the list is short: Laini Taylor, C.S. Lewis and Robin McKinley.Robin McKinley is a master of "Show, Don't Tell" and, as a fantasy author, I cannot praise and love her enough for that. I adore how her characters will do something, and she will not tell us why they did that, or whether we should think that they are good/bad/whatever because of that. No, she weaves human characters into fantastical situations and lets the scenes develop almost organically and then as the reader it is my job to ponder over the stories as I recall them days or even years later. (another example of this by Robin McKinley is her short story The Stone Fey) (SIDE RANT: Because of this skill, McKinley has restored my faith in fantasy authors. I am currently slogging through The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, who is the epitome of "Why show when I can TELL TELL TELL?!" Example of Jordan's writing: "LOOK! LOOK AT THIS CHARACTER I MADE! ISN'T HE AWESOME? HE IS AWESOME BECAUSE I AM TELLING YOU S/HE IS AWESOME! SEE WHAT THEY ARE WEARING?! THAT IS AWESOME!!" Ugh. Enough already. END SIDE RANT)All five stories in AKitG are beautiful and well done, but my favorite is the forth: Buttercups. For me, at my time of life as I am still getting used to being married, it was a perfect example of real people in magical situations and I am SHOWN their story, allowing the characters as they are to make their impression on me, not just because the author told me so. Was Coral motivated by selfishness when she married the farmer? Was the farmer's jealousy understandable? Which is more important for this married couple: communication or working together? Why? What are the buttercups? LOVE IT when I am left musing questions like this. Also, it had this most romantic scene: He kissed her then, so that conversation was not necessary, for he thought he still could not speak; but that first touch of her lips against his made the possibility of speech flee even further. But he thought, deep in his heart, of all the long days and evenings at the farm, working side by side, when they could talk or not talk as they wished; when he might be able to kiss her for no reason at all, familiarly, because he wanted to, because she was his wife, because she was there. And he smiled and kissed her, and kissed her again. Thank you, Robin McKinley!
—Carla May

I adore short story collections. And this was no exception. I'm going to try and go through the stories one by one. Also, that cover. I don't particularly like the colour yellow because I have a light sensitivity issue and yellow is usually too bright for me. But this cover is gorgeous.Healer This was an excellent story about a girl who was born mute and eventually regains her voice. Luthe makes an appearance in this as it's set in Damar. I like how she adapts to not having a voice. I like that she also learns to read/write as well for additional means of communication. And how excited she was at being able to communicate with someone.The Stagman This was another story set in Damar. Luthe again makes an appearance. I really enjoyed the ending of it and how everything played out. Not much I can talk about this without spoiling it but I can say that the girl chose the decision I would have.Touk's House This was a fantastic re-working of the tale of rapunzel. Except it's not exactly rapunzel. It starts out as such but definitely does not end as such. Also has a troll in it. The fantasy in this was great. And this was probably my favourite story.Buttercups This was a pretty good story. It was highly enjoyable. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I'm not a big fan of older man/younger woman pairings but this was done in a very good way. Meaning it's not creepy and she's not using him or him using her. Well they do kind of but that's what happens in relationships. One person has something the other person wants/needs (companionship, love, etc) and they do an equal trade (well in healthy relationships at least). But it's not in a disproportionate way (like one person doing all the giving and the other doing all the taking. It was written very vividly though enough that you could actually imagine that you're seeing all that happened.A Knot in the Grain This was....interesting. It was a good story but it was almost a weird kind of interesting in itself. I like how it ended. The thing with the box confused me a little (until the end) but everything gets sorted and it's pretty great. I like the fact that she called the car clunker because that was exactly what it was. And I could practically taste the corn with the description of it.Overall, this was a good collection of short stories and I enjoyed them all. And would definitely recommend that y'all read it.
—Blow Pop

Damar story = YESPLZ and as soon as possible!Remember that stupid Stephenie Meyer quote on the cover of City of Ashes? She said something like "The Mortal Instruments is a world I love to live in."That's how I feel about Damar, essentially, except more so.I get so, so, so swept up in these stories. I think I left a part of my brain between the pages of The Hero and the Crown the first time I read it. And as for The Blue Sword... words cannot describe the magical hold that book has over me every time I read it.
—Anila

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