The Weirdstone Of Brisingamen: Alan Garner

[poliphilo]

I began my reading of Alan Garner with Elidor (I think I read it aloud to my kids) and carried on from there in chronological order. Somehow I never bothered to go back to the first two books- and I doubt if I'd ever have bothered if Boneland (out this August) hadn't been announced as the long-delayed third part of the trilogy. I'm reading The Weirdstone now and- coming to it straight from a re-reading of The Stone Book Quartet-  I'm taken aback by the flabbiness of the prose, the absence of characterization, the stiltedness of the dialogue.  Two middle-class children come to Cheshire to lodge with a couple of salt of the earth peasanty types who say "sithee"; it could almost be Enid Blyton...

Garner himself went through a phase of hating the book. In his first revulsion he called it "one of the worst books published in the past 20 years." Now he's mellowed. Books don't last for half a century if they're unmitigated rubbish. In a recent interview he calls it "a young man's book" and praises its "energy". 

I still don't altogether understand the affection in which it's held. It's the work of writer who is still learning his craft and hasn't- to be honest- got very far with it. Great things were to follow, but when Garner's name comes up it's not Red Shift that gets mentioned first, or Thursbitch, it's the bloody Weirdstone- even though they are masterpieces and Weirdstone is a codge.

No, it's beyond me. I'm missing something, but what? 

Comments

[ooxc.livejournal.com]

The Dear Departed loved the Alderley Edge books, because he was brought up there, and he remembered people who said "sithee".
He loathed Red Shift. I think that it's rather fine.
I don't think that there is any resemblance to Blyton - the geography is too correct, and the children are much more real - but Elidor and Weirdstone are certainly child-orientated. Also, Blyton, although she published anthologies of Greek and Roman tales, didn't make nearly so much use of traditional mythology, which is what I find appealing about them

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's one of Garner's great strengths that he uses real places. I always love it when a writer does that.

I've been to a number of his locations- Alderley, Mow Kop, Jenkin Chapel, Thursbitch- all of them numinous.

Red Shift is my favourite of his books.

Locations

[(Anonymous)]

Forgive me for making a small correction, it is Mow Cop, not Kop. I presume the latter is from Spion Kop,(as in the Boer War Battle of...,) which gave its name to a number of football terraces, most famously at Anfield. Although I cannot say with any certainty, I believe that Cop is derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'coppa' meaning 'head'.
I agree that these locations are quite peculiar and special - add also the Welsh valley at the heart of The Owl Service - but so too are the books.

Re: Locations

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the correction.

I persistently mis-spell Mow Cop. Maybe this'll larn me. :)