Solstice Wood-- Patricia McKillip-- Commentary, Morning Thoughts

Tom Thumb hitches a ride on a butterfly.

Solstice Wood by Patricia McKillip is a fantasy novel. I am not sure that I can review it properly because there were pieces that I did not quite comprehend, but I will try anyways. It is a myth set in modern times.

Sylvia Lynn is asked to return to Lynn Hall by her grandmother for her grandfather's funeral. There is an immediate sense of foreboding because her grandmother does not follow her grandfather's wish to be cremated and spread among the roses. I think this is an allusion to Scottish or English mysticism where a kind of quiet enlightenment occurs where a person grows roses and handles the flowers of the fields.

Sylvia is the prodigal daughter. Her grandfather left Lynn Hall to her in his last will and testament. She is supposed to take care of the old ramshackle house. You can imagine the house as a kind of big old Victorian ramshackle affair with big trees in the yard and meadows surrounding it. There are the remnants of a gun room and a library.

Sylvia comes home to a place that can best be called a threshold between the worlds, Lynn Hall. She is the heir to keep the others out. Lynn Hall leads into the world of fairy. Sylvia does not want to acknowledge her own half fae heritage. Her grandmother introduces her to the local ladies knitting circle. The knitting circles ties and sews up the barriers between the worlds. They weave, they sew, they quilt they crochet, they knit and they make home cooked meals.

To walk in the woods and meadows behind Lynn Hall is to take a chance of stepping into the other lands. One could fall down the hollow stump of a tree, walk along the river to enter the other world, or walk into a clearing and be someplace else.

The setting is kind of odd. Somehow, the author has transplanted the Scottish, Irish, or English fairyland into what appears to be the Appalachian mountains or some similar place. The Rowan family lives near the woods for example and many are half-fae. They may have taken a woman who was a doe as a wife in local legends. This can be a bit disconcerting.

Owen, Sylvia's cousin falls in love with a fairy. He goes off into the woods to other lands and is replaced by a changeling. Because of her half fae blood, Sylvia can see this and tricks the changeling into following her into the knitting circle where they bind it with thread.

The description of Owen in fairyland is very strange. It is almost like a fever dream or a hallucination. At times it is not very comprehensible. It is beautifully written, but quite hard to follow. When Sylvia goes into fairyland to rescue Owen for example, she sees Owen as a small frog.

There is a message about love and wonder in the tale. After Owen returns his fairy lover comes back to live with him in the human world.

I am not sure I can recommend this book. It is beautifully written, but at times incomprehensible to me. I found the setting to be a little confusing at times as well. If you really like fairytales and tales of mythical places, you might like this book. This book won the Mythopoeic award.

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I borrowed On Writing Well, The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, Sixth Edition-- Revised and Updated by William Zinsser. So far, Zinsser has said one interesting thing on P.36. According to Zinsser you should read The Elements of Style by E.B. White at least once a year.

I have a day off today. It is Lincoln's birthday. I already read the morning paper had breakfast and did a little shopping. At one o'clock, I will be going down to my local library to drop off some books. They seem to open late most of the time.

I made the short trip to my local library. It was pretty quiet when I got there. I returned several books. A few were overdue and I had to pay a small fine. I usually pay a portion of my fines. Libraries when you reach a certain level of fines report you to credit bureaus.

Where I work, if you have more than fifty dollars in fines, your fines go to a collection agency and they report you to a credit agency. This is enough of a reason for most people to return their books. I really don't mind paying a small fine, it is still cheaper than buying the books. The librarian renewed the one book which I still had out.

I wandered around the library then signed on the computer for a brief stay of half an hour. I did a bit of blog stuff mainly. There was a big sign on top of the computer that said no chat rooms and no games on the computer. The librarian never checked to see what I was doing. Most of the time we don't check on this unless someone is bothering another patron with it.

There was an old lady sitting next to me looking up Cuban immigration to the United States. I tried to shuffle my chair away so I would have enough space to use the keyboard without bumping into her.

I left when a teenager wanted to sign on to do her homework. I have a computer at home. It was just a chance to work on a computer in an anonymous setting. I often think that the people who are using the computers at the library often have a computer at home.

When I came back home, it was snowing outside, and it was very cold. I wonder if we will get called to let us know we have a snow day tomorrow. Sometimes, we do.