Ambergate, Patricia Elliot (390pp) In which we discover why Gobchick was so startled when he found number 102 hiding behind the library's velvet draperies. This set of stories (beginning with Murkmere) continually had me thinking of Nazis and totalitarian states, as well as City of Lost Children. Perhaps it was the eagle. (Note the eagle as I recall was a symbol in Nazi Germany no? And it is our countries emblem as well. In the Amber gate both aspects -ruthless, loving, of the eagle are continually referenced to) And yet, towards the end of this book I recalled that bird symbolism, especially in such variety, is also in The Conference of the Birds, an old sufi tale. Whether or not this is intentional I cannot say. However the author has left the end in such a way that it can either stay as is or lead to another volume.
**
Bowery girl, Kim Taylor (223pp) Quite a change from the previous stories. The language alone would prevent me from including it in any of my current class libraries. There was a movie that came out about four or so years ago premised upon the Irish gangs of New York during the Tammany Hall years. I wondered, while reading this book, if the author had been inspired by that film. However at the end she provides a resource bibliography which seems to indicate not. I think I'll finally read my copy of Twelve Years at Hull House. Bowery girl is the type of book I would not have wanted to read as an adolescent: but all adolescents are different, some more hard core than others.
***
The Transfigured Hart, Jane Yolen (112pp) I picked this up while at Powell's this afternoon and finished it at a cafe. A nice change from the previous tale, this one about a reclusive boy who believes he finds a unicorn in the woods near his house. The same afternoon a classmate sees this same animal and recognises it as an albino deer. How these two people meet up and what happens as a result is a sweet, and thankfully bloodless, story.
****
I also picked up:
Cousin Bette, Honore Balzac
The Dark Light, Mette Newth
*****CV
