BoatGirl’s #CBR4 Review #38: The Secret Country by Pamela Dean
This is the second Pamela Dean book that I have ever read (see my review of her novel Tam Lin) and I am coming to the conclusion that her it is her style to be sloooo….ooo… (wait for it)… ow.
The Secret Country takes a great idea then streee…ee..et..ch…eeesss.. it out over many many pages. The basic premise is that 5 cousins have customarily spent their summers together on a farm, playing out a story that they have developed over the years. In this story, they play a variety of characters living in a fantasy world of wizards and unicorns that includes their namesakes as part of the royal family. However, the summer the book takes place in, one family has moved to Australia, breaking up the game. The two siblings left behind in America stumble (literally) upon a sword that transports them through a hedge and into another world – the world of their game. The three siblings in Australia have found a similar sword and the five meet up in the magical world.
As they all enjoy their game, they agree to continue “playing,” even though they cannot agree as to whether it is real or some sort of joint hallucination. As they wrote the story, they know what is going to happen, but things start to go off track. They try to work the system, as it were, to make the world they are in adapt to their view of the game. But Ted doesn’t want to have to kill the king’s murderer, as he does in their story. And Laura is still really clumsy and not good with horses. And Ruth doesn’t is making up the magic as she goes along. Characters they didn’t imagine turn up and start playing roles. The unicorn hunt doesn’t go at all the way it is supposed to. Sound disjointed? That’s the book.
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I loved the basic premise – to suddenly find yourself able to go into the world you’ve been imagining for years and interact as your character, only to find that maybe you’d prefer a different ending. Brilliant. The execution left a lot to be desired. The five characters (Ruth, Ted, Patrick, Ellen and Laura) would discuss and argue about what was going on, raise a theory, one would decide to test it and … no resolution. One would make a decision to change the story, do something to attempt it, but who knows if it worked or not. Once they got to the castle and started living in it, they liked seeing things, but all of them complained about the food, the clothes, the facilities, having to do castle stuff. It left me wondering, if it sucked so bad, why didn’t they just turn around and go home instead of constantly whinging?
For a book that meandered and dripped and turned and went back and forth and stopped and went and then slowly continued the end was sudden.
Cannonball Read IV 