Choice Joyce

posted by Todd T @ 7:33 PM

No, not James.

I am a fan of Graham Joyce, increasingly so with each book I read. The last one I read was DARK SISTER. Lisa read it and did not care for it, so I had to find out why and whether I agreed. Frankly, I do not. With no aspersion meant towards her at all, I think the book is more complex than most that she likes.

It's about witches, modern and otherwise. There is no easy way to synopsize it without spoiling just about every development. I think the theme is the difficulty older people have in passing on their wisdom to the young, and in understanding when that wisdom must bend to the times. I say 'I think' because I can see other readings, and Joyce does not bludgeon us with Message at all. The emotions evoked by the last quarter of the book are complex, and the theme is underlined by symbology that some may not interpret as I did. I am a parent, and a person who harbors serious regrets about not learning more from people who are now gone. Whether this book would hit people who do not share those traits as hard as it did me, I couldn't say.
Although I have never participated in anything witchy and don't know what I think about whether wicca has anything going for it, I did feel that if it works, this must be how it feels to work it. I felt verisimilitude in the way the spells and senses of the witches were portrayed.

While I found the communications difficulties of the protagonist couple quite believable, there were a few clumsy moments right at the start that were probably meant to support that character situation but rang false. But this is my only cavil. It's not THE TOOTH FAIRY, which is still my favorite Joyce and is I feel a tour de force, but it's good stuff.