... with great great comment thread about The Stolen Child, including Guardian rvwr (who handles conflict with the other commenters pretty gracefully I think) & author (sounding huffy I think, thereby not doing his book any favors)
..I landed on this via search stolen child donohue disappointing why die.. (dies is not important, just tht maybe I'd get sth about eg how it works that the changeling who has made the change back to human life eventually dies ... and does he age eventually without having to stretch and alter his visage?) the myth seemed not thought out, not complete. and ok, by the author's account here & on az page he was using this as a vehicle to have child & grown man both living & able to meet. but that seems sloppy to me in the first place. it's not one person. they are different. the one took the place of the other. he got his family, his face. but they are very much not the same person.
KindKit said... This is the best review of the novel I've seen anywhere--far more thoughtful and interesting than those in, for instance, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and even the Guardian.
Colin Greenland said... Ooh. I wrote that Guardian review. I'm still quite pleased with it, and of course Abigail's is more than twice the length of mine, but I think kindkit is right. graceful.
"It isn't exactly a bad novel but more a bland one, and not so much underperforming as un-performing." Agree, absolutely. I found Stace's book thoroughly and puzzlingly unsatisfying, but it looks as if I concentrated on telling everyone what is actually in the book and the peculiar way it's made up, rather than anatomizing its deficiencies. (You have to like the title they gave my piece, tho: "Skirting the Issues". That's exactly right.) I hope what I said was discouraging. That was certainly how I felt. And I might have been less patient if it had been his fifth novel than his first. also graceful.
Abigail Nussbaum said...
Hm, I've been wondering about that book. On the surface of it, it seems like just my sort of thing, but I've been getting that Historian, Time Traveler's Wife vibe off it - that it's a genre book written by a genre outsider, for genre outsiders, with the deliberate intention of becoming a bestseller huh int (true story: I bought a copy of The Historian in Israel before it was even properly released in the States - Israeli bookstores being famously unfussy about that sort of thing - and the cover already had 'international bestseller' stamped on the front).
Colin Greenland said... It's not in today, apparently. The review, I mean, in the Guardian.
I know what you mean about the "Time Traveler's Wife vibe", Abigail, but I don't think it's anything to do with sales: more like someone getting something out of their system. I didn't know it was selling so well until I Googled it again just now. I'm bewildered, frankly.
Donohue's is a deeply depressive, introverted book. hmm. An obsessive private project, one might suspect, that cost him enormous time and anguish to write. It wouldn't surprise me at all to find that the reason it's set c1980 is that he wrote it then and has been revising it and/or trying to sell it ever since. And if so, maybe it's the current shift of favour towards pop lit of a fantastic tendency that's persuaded Random House to take a chance on it.
Again: I'm only guessing; tho Donohue's piece on amazon.com doesn't exactly contradict me. And interested as we'd all be to hear your opinion of his book, I truly can't expect it would be very favourable. Apart from the premise, and a continual icky creepiness about ancient creatures sneaking in from the woods, there's nothing in it for readers with genre tastes.
Anonymous said... re: Stolen Child. I'm eager to see the review in the Guardian. Can you post it here? Although evidence is not definitive, it appears that the precipitous success of this book may be due in large part to a surreptitious publicity campaign executed on behalf of the publisher (presumably for a fee) by Amazon.com. yep great I was wondering about thatAnyone know anything about this rumour? thx. blephen@yahoo.com
Anonymous said...
To Colin Greenwood --
I wrote The Stolen Child in 2001-02 and shopped it around for an agent before landing one in 2004. My first novel! So, no long personal anguish on my part, and certainly not designed to capitalize on the success of the other books you mentioned, of which I was not familiar.
It isn't intended as a "fantasy" novel or a genre piece but uses the changeling myth as a way of getting at questions of identity. The time period of the book is 1949-1978 to coincide with the rise of suburbia and the loss of a time when children could go out in the woods, wonder about, fill their imaginations. I used the changeling story as a way to introduce two narrators with a common identity. no no they don't. there is a way ok in which they do but you seem in the book to want them to be the same person at different ages. and that's not what they seem to be.
Love the other persons's comment about being a "deliberate" bestseller, as if such a thing were possible to pull off. oh pish posh you seal the deal here. I don't trust you. this sounds condescending, & in that, insecure. (at the least it seems uncareful, not respectful to say 'the other person' rather than notice the name, and that this is her blog, and that she seems intelligent.) on the defensive I guess.
Hope your Guardian review judges the book on its own terms. Keith Donohue July 01, 2006 2:35 AM
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Hey, all my guesses were wrong. Well, I did say they were guesses. Good of Keith to let us know, and to confirm that it was not designed to be a genre book, or a bestseller! grace ful. I think it is possible to write deliberate bestsellers, incidentally, but it needs a very special talent, or attitudemight be a better word yes & glad you answered this . And of course it doesn't always work. of course. I'm with you. you are doing fine.
My review is in today's Guardian, apparently. My name, below, may not be quite as appropriate as Keith seems to think name? oh. Keith wrote 'to Colin Greenwood' wh -I guess Colin means?- wld be appropr to the book where the changelings live in the woods, but if you click on it you should be able to see the piece on their website.
There was much discussion, blephen, since you ask, about the words we should use to describe the part played by Amazon in helping publicize the book. Neither my editor nor I knew more than the rumour you mention, the "Early Buzz" on the Amazon page, and what we could glean from Google. yay his rvw will regard, if not inform me about, that push.
I always assumed the initiative came from Random House. right. at first I thought, huh az picked the book to push? like Borders 'first voices' or whatever, ok maybe. then I thought, oh no duh, the publisher probably is trying doing this kind of as top 100 rvwr push as a co-op marketing.My editor felt it might have been Amazon acting independently. The editor's decision was final. She was probably right, of course. I'm not good at guessing. graceful still incidentally.
Good of you to give us the space to air all this stuff, Abigail; especially on a page that's supposed to be about another book entirely... and again.
Abigail Nussbaum said... My pleasure, Colin. I actually read your review this morning and was planning to link to it here. I guess I'll have to give The Stolen Child a look at some point.
To Colin --
Read your review in the Guardian, and I take exception to your characterization of the novel as "an alienated vision of life as decay, bereft of meaning or hope." Both protagonists suffer in their search for identity, but at the end of the novel they act out of hope: Henry, realizing he must tell the truth to be accepted for who he is; Aniday, realizing he must take steps--literally--to find love and the way to growing up. True the book isn't tied up in a bow, but neither is life. oh dear this sounds amateurish & defensive (and see the defense that is the next paragraph). not graceful.
The book received favorable pre-publication reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Library Journal, Ottakar's and Waterstones. Very good reviews in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, People, newspapers in Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, National Public Radio, and was a Booksense Pick for May. It's selling well in independent bookstores and online in the United States, and it seems a bit disingenuous and unfair to cite publicity and marketing in the review. disingenuous? huh. well maybe I need to see what Colin 'cites' from the (az?) publicity. negative comments? wh is int - I saw negative rvws on az when I skimmed - where the 100 rvwrs allowed to post whatever they wanted, not just positive? surely, I am thinking, they would be? az cldnt/wldnt tell them what to post. Keith
and then Colin posts Goodness me. How could I be so wrong? which confuses me bcs unless I am missing sth he is being sarcastic. I guess: since all those rvws like yr bk, I must be wrong. (sing-song). which seems like a falling off from the grace.
anyway that's it. later in july a blog rdr posts a comment actually about the book rvwd in this post, & taking some issue w Colin. Colin responds fairly evenly
"For the Guardian reviewer, why are coincidences not allowed in the modern novel? That seems a bizarre pronoucement."
It does, William, doesn't it? hmm. this use of the first name. manuvuering into collegial position. but is it condescending? (probably. so, how much so?) It's certainly not one I'd make. In fact, I hope anything is allowed in the modern novel; and I rather think it is.
When you use any kind of plot device, you do have to consider the effect it will have. That was what I was saying.
As to the power to discourage, if I have it, yes, I suppose I do think it's nice. It must be the other side of the power to encourage people to read a book that has impressed me. I enjoy that. I think you do too, otherwise why post your opinion?
ok not graceless but I am also thinking now that he is awfully responsive to challenges is he watching the web for reference to himself & his rvws? and his grace may be a bit studied, the using of everyone's names. so ~. but whatever, that might be just attention and nice manners.
personality through writing.
grace in disagreement.
and this book that I now trust less bcs of the seeming personality of the author here.
time to read Colin's Guardian rvw......
she seems intelligent also. (along with Guardian writer Colin).