Robert Cormier was a true wordsmith, the kind we rarely see anymore and certainly not in most YA fiction. This collection of short stories is not his best. But, like most of his work, it is leaps and bounds beyond much of what I have read of late. Check out this line: "The party coincided with one of those leaf-toasted afternoons when late summer conspires with early autumn to produce an in-between period of grace and loveliness." It's not an important detail. The story is a quick tale of his daughter moving on from a Senior year boyfriend. It is an example of the richness of Cormier's writing, however, showing how he used minor details like an artist's paintbrush. He described things in a way which draws you in, not only to setting, but to the emotion of the piece. By his own admission these nine stories were not heavily edited and he drew liberally from his own family and his family's history to create them. What is intriguing is that he provides a forward to each tale. Each forward gives an insight into the writing process, the creative spark which help to form a narrative. I liked them but read the book backwards, reading the forward after reading the story. In that way I could take each tale in with no preconceptions. It's a tiny, unknown little gem from a master who brought us so much more than "The Chocolate War" and "I Am the Cheese". By all means, dig in.
No comments:
Post a Comment