Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce

Rating

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The book's synopsis from the publisher's website:

Acclaimed author Graham Joyce's mesmerizing new novel centers around the disappearance of a young girl from a small town in the heart of England. Her sudden return twenty years later, and the mind-bending tale of where she's been, will challenge our very perception of truth.

For twenty years after Tara Martin disappeared from her small English town, her parents and her brother, Peter, have lived in denial of the grim fact that she was gone for good. And then suddenly, on Christmas Day, the doorbell rings at her parents' home and there, disheveled and slightly peculiar looking, Tara stands. It's a miracle, but alarm bells are ringing for Peter. Tara's story just does not add up. And, incredibly, she barely looks a day older than when she vanished.

Just when I thought there were no new to me writers to discover, along came Graham Joyce. He is an established author, with a long and successful writing career and a nice following of fans. Yet, up until I started reading his newest creation, Some Kind of Fairy Tale, I'd had no idea about Joyce's existence. I won't go into specific reasons why that happened. But it made me reconsider my reading priorities. Maybe I should have been devoting my time to reading fantastic authors such as Graham, instead of wasting it on nonsensical, devoid of any deeper meaning books that bring no value to my life. I suppose there comes a time in most people's lives, when they get such realization about anything of significance (reading is what matters to me), and there's usually a trigger to set our minds in motion. Some Kind of Fairy Tale was a sort of a trigger to me.

If you ever want to experience what true magic realism is, read Some Kind of Fairy Tale. And no, it's not 'a fairy tale' for adults. This is a story where the divide between what's 'real' and what's 'magical' gets smaller and smaller as you read, until at some point you realize that it doesn't even matter any longer whether it's there at all. You read the story of Tara's and where there may have been some incredulity at first, in the end it seems just as natural an explanation, as any other could have been. The subtlety with which Joyce weaves the impossible into our pragmatic world is out of this world (pun intended).

Above all that, Some Kind of Fairy Tale captured my heart with its writing. The prose is simple, spare and brilliant. There's nothing, or almost nothing, that I hate more than convoluted passages of writing that in the end mean absolutely nothing and serve no purpose other than to indulge an author's ego. Mr. Joyce's straightforward writing is, obviously, the exact opposite and does a splendid job of creating characters I really liked and whose company in real life I'd enjoy. All these people were changed by Tara's disappearance and the fact that she comes back, that she is alive after all, doesn't really bring any closure, any resolution.If anything, it brings disappointment and disillusionment for Tara. She now can see the world she left as empty of wonder, and the people she once knew and loved as incapable of looking and any further than at what's right in front of their noses, and sometimes not even that.

OK, before I go off somewhere philosophizing, I'll cut it short and sweet. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a smart novel that will encourage you to ponder on whether your reality is mundane, and if it is, whether it's because the world is mundane or because we make it so. The novel's tragic at times, at times quite entertaining (made me laugh a couple of times) and it's never boring. Some Kind of Fairy Tale is a proof that literary fiction is not pretentious if it's written well, and that it will give you a satisfied feeling of having spent your time in good company.

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FTC: I received an e-galley of Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce for review from Knopf Doubleday via NetGalley. 

Some Kind of Fairy Tale will be on sale beginning July 10th, 2012. In the meantime, please read a sample below and see if you like it.

Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce

The Language of Trees by Illie Ruby

The book synopsis from the author's website:

Gripping, suspenseful, magical, and richly atmospheric—a story told from several distinct and unforgettable viewpoints—Ilie Ruby’s haunting debut novel, THE LANGUAGE OF TREES is exhilarating fiction that announces the arrival of a truly extraordinary storyteller. 
In the sprawling lake region of Canandaigua, New York—a place where some families have secrets they would do anything to keep—little Luke Ellis disappeared. Now, over a decade later, his teenage sister, Melanie, has vanished, abandoning her infant son. As the frantic search for Melanie ensues, Grant Shongo, a Seneca healer, finds himself caught up by a spirit that draws him into a world where nature and the spiritual realm are intertwined and nothing is as it seems. It is only with the help of his childhood love, Echo O'Connell, that the mystery of the Ellis children can be put to rest. But before the healing must come the forgiveness. Written in a magic realist vernacular, THE LANGUAGE OF TREES examines the tremulous bonds between parents and children, lovers and friends, and restless spirits—both living and not. It is a story that will make you believe that the spirits of those we love watch over us, that people can heal each other, and that if you can truly forgive yourself, the world will return to you all of your forgotten dreams. 

I don't know what it is but 2010 has so far been producing a wonderful array of debut writers. I'm obviously not complaining, I'm actually loving it. For an avid reader like me, it's always great to experience a work of such talent as Ilie Ruby's. And to read The Language of Trees by Ms. Ruby, it truly is an experience, and one that I will not soon forget.


Simply put, The Language of Trees took me by surprise and in the end I realized I cared for the story, for the people in it more than I had thought I would when I began reading the novel. I admit that the beginning was a little difficult for me to get get through but I didn't have to wait long to be rewarded. Only after fifty pages or so, the story took off and took me to unexpected places. I was rooting for pretty much every character in there because Ms. Ruby somehow made them all important in their own right, just like in real life, everyone you encounter on your path is significant in one way or another even if you're not aware of it.

There's Melanie, the former drug addict who is not physically present for most of the novel but the more she's searched for by her mother and her life partner, Lion, the more I got to know her, care for her and feel for her pain. Lion is an altogether different story. He might very well be my most favorite person from the book (although there are quite a few strong contenders), mostly because his love for Melanie is almost supernatural, it's so strong and he hurts so much when he can't find her. I won't even tell you how many times I've come close to having my heart broken. I won't describe every character here for you even though I'm tempted because they are all worth the time and attention, I just don't want to spoil your reading.

Characters are not the only things worth talking about in The Language of Trees. I admit that I am a fan of magic realism and I was thrilled to find elements of it in Ms. Ruby's novel. Especially because it was pulled off really well and it was convincing, which is not an easy feat in my opinion. The reference and big influence of Native American, specifically Senecan, mythology on the story is yet another great part of the book. I somehow can never get enough of Native American traditions and culture, they hold that special mystic atmosphere for me which always makes a book richer if introduced adequately. Last but not least, the writing is simply magical. I found myself contemplating individual sentences and paragraphs many times before I would move on to the next one. I also wrote down many of them because I want them committed to my memory. Quite a few thoughts and observations there moved me deeply and they might ultimately be the reason that I will one day want to reread this novel.

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Special thanks to Ilie Ruby for sending me a copy of her book for review.