It's hard to be a cynic, much less a hatah when you have something pure like this. This may not be my favorite book, but I can't say that I didn't enjoy giving up a few hours on a Wednesday night to visit Michael's world.When I was little and told to say my prayers (by hypocritical lapsed catholics, by the way) I would start by asking that my family be safe (yeah, that didn't work out so well now, did it?) and then hit the trivial things like asking that Jimmy Watts would notice me or maybe my mom could buy me the new Olivia Newton John album? Ah... to be so oblivious.Michael has just moved into a new house. 'House' being used in the loosest of descriptions. The previous owner wasn't so much into home improvement as he was into slowly dying. The yard is a mess of weeds and there is a toilet in the dining room. The garage is a home to broken appliances, rolls of linoleum, planks, boxes, bugs and something else."I thought he was dead. He was sitting with his legs stretched out and his head tipped back against the wall. He was covered in dust and webs like everything else and his face was thin and pale. Dead bluebottles were scattered on his hair and shoulders. I shined the flashlight on his white face and his black suit."Meet Skellig. Say his name a few times. Notice how your tongue is trapped behind your teeth. Feel the grit. Accentuate the 'guh'. Yeah... now close your eyes and visualize Skellig... decrepit, emaciated, mean, gruff. He's like a bad guy in a fairy tale, right? The guy that you'd cross the street to avoid. And he lives in Michael's garage. Did I mention that Michael's baby sister is dying? Oh, sorry about that. Michael doesn't like to dwell on that. Instead he makes friend with Mina, a girl who lives down the street who is home-schooled, likes to sing William Blake poems, and draw blackbirds and owls. He plays hookie to help his dad fix up the house. He tries to nurse Skellig by feeding him takeout chinese (27 and 53-nectar of the gods), beer, and cod liver oil. When he does go to school he learns about skeletons and wonders why people have shoulder blades. (They say it where your wings were, when you were an angel, Michael's mom explains, they say they're where your wings will grow again one day.) Where does all this lead? What do children wish for? What do you do when your baby sister is in the hospital tied to wires and tubes? Do miracles really exist? ' You have to believe in magic' Olivia once crooned. 'If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.' says Blake. "What are you?" I whispered.He shrugged again."Something," he said. "Something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel." He laughed. "Something like that."He smiled.
I read this because in one of Nick Hornby's Believer columns he mentioned this was supposed to be the best YA book of all time. I don't know where he got this information, maybe from the ALA or some other three letter group. He gave it a glowing review so I thought I'd read it. My first thought after reading it was that if it had been an adult novel I would have loved it. As a novel it felt more like a very nice sketch of an interesting and magical story than what I would like from a finished book. Not that there seemed to be anything necessarily missing from the book, it just didn't seem fully flushed out, like there was more he could have done with the book to given it more depth and expanded some of the themes in even more interesting ways. Of course doing so would have made this probably not a YA novel, but rather moved him into the magical-realism worlds of someone like Jonathan Carroll or Nicholas Christopher. But that said I found this really enjoyable, but in a teasing way that made me want more of something that there was no more to have. The funny thing I found in this book was the author interview at the end. The author is asked about his influences, and he is led in the question to a magical realism answer which he admits to having and cites Marquez, someone whom I have never read, but maybe one day will. But then he answers that his other big influence is Raymond Carver. I find this to be really funny (not that you can't see the Carver in the book, the minimalism of Carver is defintely present in the streamlined no nonsense prose contained within) because I'm imagining some 13 year old who loving this book goes to read the people the author says are good and goes to pick up Carver. This is something I would have done at 13, and still do to this day, I'm a sucker for going after influences of authors I love and expanding the books I will one day need to read in this way. I would love to see the reaction of a 13 year old reading story after story of middle aged losers with dead end jobs getting drunk, chain-smoking and living in the dismal shit of adulthood. What would a young teen make of this? Would it scar them for life? Would they instantly suffer some existential crisis? How would a youngster deal with the harsh reality of Carver's characters? So yeah I found that funny, in an absurd-ish sort of way, but that really has nothing to do with the book which was pretty damned good.
Do You like book Skellig (2001)?
Well, that was excellent. This book is a brief mouthful of myth and hope and atmosphere. Reasons to read it?1. There's a magical, irritable man in the narrator's garage. He likes Chinese take out and dead mice.2. There is a wise and judgmental girl-neighbor who becomes the narrator's best friend.3. There is no kissing.4. There is warming family dynamic: the narrator is afraid his sickly baby sister will die.5. There are teachers and parents and grown-ups who aren't idiots, assholes, or antagonists.6. Myth!7. Myth!8. Myth!Recommended.
—Maggie Stiefvater
I read this book because of its review in one of Nick Hornby's Believer columns. His high praise and its referencing of William Blake sold me. It's an imaginative tale, touching and sweet but not saccharine; simply told, but with lots to think about; and suitable for its target audience of ages 8 to 12, but interesting enough for an adult (me) to keep reading and thinking. Plus I learned some new things about owls.The story reminds me a little bit of something Neil Gaiman might write; but despite its themes, it's not nearly as dark as Gaiman usually is.
—Teresa
"All the way round the house it had been the same. Just see it in your mind's eye. Just imagine what could be done. All the way round I kept thinking of the old man, Ernie Myers, that had lived here on his own for years. He'd been dead nearly a week before they found him under the table in the kitchen. That's what I saw when Stone told us about seeing with the mind's eye."It is harder for me to come up with a quote from an audio book. I feel that I have read my audiobooks more thoroughly than I read with my eyes because the reading is slower. So often I live for awhile with the readers' voices in my head long after I finish listening. However, I can't go back to the page where there was a quote I really liked. However, there is always the Internet. After I put this quotation up as a placeholder for my review, I realized that all I want to say 27 and 53 - nectar of the gods. Not an exact quote, but something that Skellig says in the book and Almond's voice is still saying it in my brain.I can't tell you why this was the YA book I choose to listen to last month. Something about it caught my eye, but I don't remember what. I will say that living with Skellig, Michael and Mina for awhile was a delight. Almond has written a good story and he is an excellent narrator. To enjoy this tale requires suspending your disbelief, but I found that easy to do. The world that you enter is familiar, but not entirely so. And it is a wonderful place to dwell while you learn more about Mina and Michael.I am not sure that many young adults would pick this up. It is not fast paced, there are no vampires, werewolves or evil governments. I think this would appeal more to adults who are willing to slowly enter a new world. It could be an excellent family listen on vacation if everyone in the car has a bit of patience.I think meeting the people who live on Falconer Street is well worth doing.
—Patty
