Is A String in the Harp... historical fiction? fantasy? family drama? I suppose that it could be labeled a work of all three of those genres, plus multicultural lit, mystery and possibly even suspense. For a debut author, Nancy Bond does well in morphing the varied story elements into a cohesive narrative that should keep one's attention, while at the same time providing an excellent introductory education on the subject of ancient and contemporary life in Wales. After the death of their mother about a year ago, siblings Peter (age twelve) and Becky (ten) are taken to the small nation of Wales with their father (David), who has accepted a job there at a university. The oldest of the three siblings, Jen (age fifteen), is allowed to stay on in America with her aunt and uncle, but is temporarily reunited with her family in Wales during Christmas vacation from school. As happy as Jen is to be back with her family, she quickly realizes that there is little peace to be found among her father and siblings. Becky has maintained a bravely positive attitude about her life being disrupted by the move to a foreign country, but Peter has become enshrouded in bitterness, rarely talking to his father except in short, emotionless bytes. Jen had already been aware that there was trouble with Peter, but she hadn't completely understand how fractured the family was, and walking into the middle of the drama as a veritable outsider makes things even more awkward for her. Peter, though, has a secret that could turn the entire family situation upside down. While out walking one day in the Welsh countryside, he came across a strange, glowing artifact. He initially had no idea of the y-shaped object's purpose; however, after deciding to keep it anyway, Peter begins to experience strange visions that seem to sweep him backwards through the mists of time to a much younger Wales, one filled with the adventure and daring of the nation's romantic past in the sixth century. Peter is only a spectator in these visions, yet he always comes back to his own time still feeling the full emotional impact of what he has witnessed, and knows that the vivid scenes can't possibly be just fantasies. When Jen comes to Wales for vacation, Peter makes up his mind to share his big secret with her; however, things don't go according to plan, and telling Jen about the key leads to the magical artifact being put in serious jeopardy of confiscation by a third party. By this point, Peter still doesn't fully understand the importance of the mysterious piece that he holds, but he has the growing sense that he is being depended upon to do something with it as a means of setting to rest a portion of Welsh history that has remained unfinished for more than a thousand years. The question is, what must he do? Overall, the parts to A String in the Harp that really leap out at me most are the arguments between the kids and their father, especially the ones that occur between Peter and David. In my opinion these are easily the most exciting sections of the book, capable of generating real emotional heat in even a generally impassive reader. Nancy Bond knows how to write some pretty provocative dialogue, and this is where the story shines most brightly. One other detail that I noticed about A String in the Harp is the way that David is always referred to in the narration by his first name, rather than "their father" or "their dad", or something along those lines. This approach is notably unconventional in comparison to most other young-adult books, leading me to wonder if the author's original intent may have been to write the story for an adult audience. Of course, that's just speculation on my part, but the narrative does read somewhat differently than most young-adult and children's books that I have read. Having experienced all three hundred seventy pages of A String in the Harp, I think it's fair to say that it has some interesting qualities to it, and I'm glad that I made the time to read the book.
Well, it's hard to say why I gave it a full three stars. I guess it was because I did find the story interesting, though it sure dragged on through the middle 200 pages of it.And yes, it dragged on. The book was full of fluff, but I think it was purposeful. Lots of over-the-top descriptions of everything. I believe the author had two goals in the story, and the first was to try to give off an aura of what she feels Wales is like. She was VERY descriptive, and whether or not it was Wales I was feeling, I could definitely get a good feel for where the characters were throughout the book. The author succeeded in this goal.The second goal of the author, I believe, was to try to tell a sort of coming-of-age story. It almost became annoying how many times Jen or Peter said they 'felt old' or 'felt like an adult' or 'felt treated like an adult.' I really think the author was forcing it though, because the children didn't really act like children. I don't think the author could really relate to real kids. Rather, they seemed like adults who randomly acted immaturely and then 'felt old' when they didn't. The author failed in this goal.There is also an array of other annoyances in the book. One is the comma splice. I mean the author is an author for crying out loud. She should be able to avoid that and just put in periods or semi-colons instead. The other is her lack of the words 'that,' 'which,' 'who' or 'whom' where they belong. And they are not just missing in the dialogue, which would be fine. No, the book is full of sentences much like, "She talked to the owner of the store, could be counted on to help," or "Her favorite music is the kind helps her relax." Really annoying.And lastly, the characters in the book use very strange words - not natural, even in the late 70's when this was written. For example, they call a line in the store a 'queue.' The laundromat they called the 'Washatorium,' but since they capitalized it, maybe that was the name of the establishment. And they had like 5 different words for boots, only one of which was 'boot.' And even the 10 year old used words MUCH too big for her, especially since she never did any reading besides her homework where she could learn those words.Yet somehow the book was slightly captivating, so I'll not punish it with a 2-star rating. :-)
Do You like book A String In The Harp (1996)?
I found this book on the shelves at a used book shop. It's a YA novel that I didn't find very absorbing, but it might be just the speed for 12-year-olds. Good descriptive writing about the Welsh people and countryside/seaside. It's rare to find a book about a father's struggles to connect with his children, and for all the members to rebuild their sense of family after the wife/mother dies, but this was depicted very honestly.I have an interest in early harp, and the book focuses partly on the Welsh bard Taliesin, so the book drew me in for that. It doesn't give very much detail about bardic practice in 6th-century Wales, but for me, that's better than getting it wrong, or worse, romanticizing it. I'll save the book for my daughter to read in a few years.
—Cindy
I picked this one up in my meanderings through past Newbery Award and Newbery Honor winners. I'm beginning to think that the main criteria for Newbery's is that they include children dealing with some difficult emotional trauma. This one has three children who have recently lost their mother in a car accident. It is very well-written. I was impressed with the writing to begin with and thought it had hope as a story. I feel that the story fell flat and the struggles of the children in the family were somewhat irritating to me. I felt the two youngest children behaved as I felt they would in the circumstances, the oldest child and the remaining parent were frustrating and, in my opinion, responsible for the disfunctionality of the family. The book ends in a much better place but only after a rather disjointed and often unrelated story in between. The highlight of the book for me was the author's description of the Welsh countryside. I really got a feel for the wild, sometimes desolate, unpredictable landscape and the independence of this small but very old country.
—Trina
Don't know how many stars to give this one. The first time I read it, I had never been to Wales, never studied Welsh, no exposure to any Welsh legends. And I loved it. It was fantastic. Then I read it after living in Wales to study Welsh for a summer, and I hated it. I think it may have been partially that I was terribly jealous of this family who got to live not far from Aberystwyth (which is my favourite place) and they didn't appreciate it. They all hated living there. But I also felt like Wales was presented not as a place to love for itself, but for the food and other surface stuff like that. It drove me crazy. Also, whoever the printer was hadn't made allowances for the Welsh language. There were a couple of places where hyphens made the words make no sense. It would be like hyphenating between a c and an h in "ch" for us - you need both letters together, or it makes a different sound. And I know the type people probably didn't speak Welsh, but you do need to check for that when you are using a foreign language. Sorry. I think this turned into a tirade.
—Melanie
