Bedframes and Bayern

Here is a snapshot of our new raised garden bed. Earlier this week I planted fava beans and Austrian winter peas for ground cover. As I write, the frame of the bed is being leveled—probably not the ideal order of things. We will see what occurs next.

Let me now proceed with the first of a long backlog of book reviews.

Not much of one to pay full price for books, I salvaged Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl out of my parents’ garage and was charmed enough to check the next book out of the library, and the next, and the next. I expected the books to get worse as the series continued, but I actually really enjoyed the third and fourth books.

The Goose Girl draws its inspiration from one of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales. While the two stories share many events and characters, they are not nearly close enough for it to qualify as a retelling. One striking difference is that the main character in the original tale is completely passive, while Hale’s heroine takes decisive action throughout the book. Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee is of course beautiful and blonde, but still plenty admirable, and I found myself captivated by the story. Don’t let her ridiculous name turn you off; the whole book is teasing conventions all the while that it profits from the power of a good old fairy tale.

The original editions of the Books of Bayern came dressed in playful illustrations with a medieval Italian feel, but they seem to have been later repackaged as teen romances with front cover photos of mysterious, full-bosomed young girls peering out at ruined castles from the shadows of the forest. It occurred to me to be embarrassed as I checked them out of the young adult section of the library, but obviously that didn’t stop me.

The second book features one of the princess’s friends, and it deals skillfully with her maturing through a period of self-deception and alienation from her friends. The third book is about another of their crowd, a boy this time. I really enjoyed it because it made me laugh a lot and it showed convincing character development. In the fourth book, the main character harbors serious confusion about her identity. I found this story deeper than many young adult novels. It is not her image that troubles her, as it does so many of these type of fictional characters, but her very soul. It is a unique, poignant story.

These summaries sound rather psychological, but the stories are full-fleshed and concrete with entertaining plots. My main disappointment with the books is the use of a real place name, Bayern, when all the other place names are made up. I also disapprove of the lack of suffixes for demonyms and for adjectival forms of place names. But these are minor beefs.

If you’re looking for some good clean escapist young adult fantasy fiction with interesting characters, and written with a great sense of humor, I recommend these books.

Three books

THE SPIES OF WARSAW

I had heard great things about Alan Furst, and I can see why many consider him one of the finest writers of spy novels. His tale unfolds elegantly, and his character Jean-François Mercier de Boutillon is enjoyable. He is as charming in his heroic spy exploits as he is in his powerful yearning for jelly doughnuts.

I appreciated the book enough to lose some sleep reading it, but it was never very suspenseful or mysterious. I would be interested in reading some of Furst’s other novels in order to see if this is an anomaly or just his style.

WHO’S AFRAID OF POSTMODERNISM?

This book by James Smith was a very approachable treatment of the church’s response to postmodernism. I cannot speak for the soundness of the author’s philosophy (I thought he treated some of the philosophers’ writings in an inexcusably general manner, although his embracement of these philosophers was refreshing in comparison to the usual fear you sense among evangelicals) but his critique of the American church over the last few decades was right on target, and his vision for the future was exciting and encouraging (until he starts describing the particulars of his ideal worship service). Incidentally, I was annoyed by how 50% of the footnotes referred to another of the author’s books. I’m not sure that was necessary, and it makes me mistrust him.

THE TALES OF BEEDLE THE BARD

I challenge anyone to read this all-too-brief collection of stories in more than one sitting. It takes a certain genius to write a successful fairy tale; after her previous voluminous tomes, J. K. Rowling indisputably proves her mettle by mastering this short form. And the commentary by Albert Dumbledore, along with scholarly footnotes, is exquisite.