Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance by Ruth Emmie Lang
My rating: 5/5 cats
”Why do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Take something beautiful and vandalize it with skepticism?”
first of all, a million gratitudes to st. martins for sending me a copy of this book. it was on my radar as “looks like my kind of thing,” but i’ve been trying not to buy hardcovers, especially hardcovers by authors new to me, until wealth finds me, so when they offered this unto me, i was all a-squeal.
i knew i would like it, but i didn’t expect to like it this much.
it is in fact SO MUCH “my kind of thing” that i’m a little swoony. it’s magical realism, sure, but even more than that, it’s pure storytelling. which, no, thank you very much, is not what all authors do. in fact, very few have the knack for it, and this book has gone a long way towards filling the hole in my heart that appeared when donald harington died.
it’s clear, direct, clean prose that’s not trying to be post- or post-post- or meta-anything, that’s not compensating for a lack of direction with literary gimmicks, that’s not fecund with self-importance or message or meaning, that doesn’t need to use words like “fecund” to show off.
which is not to say that it’s simple or unambitious or anything like that – like i said, there aren’t many writers who can pull this off, because when you streamline and take away all the distractions to the reader, there’s less to hide behind. as any magician will tell you, it takes more skill to work clean but it’s a more impressive show. and make no mistake, this book is magical.
as far as the plot goes, it’s about the life of weylyn grey, an orphaned boy raised by wolves who has a number of unusual abilities best summarized as “affecting the natural world.” he can create or prevent weather, communicate with animals (including his pet horned pig, merlin ♥), restore or regrow plants, etc. there’s no explanation about why he has these abilities, for which i am grateful, and it’s more like his presence inspires these occurrences, through some heightened connection to nature, which connection made itself known from the book’s opening chapter, also known to me as that time i was hooked. from. page. one.
I have delivered over a thousand babies in my career, but one in particular stands out in my mind. Weylyn was by all outward appearances a healthy baby boy: eight pounds, two ounces, all the necessary parts accounted for, and a wail that could shatter good china. He fit perfectly in the crook of his mother’s arm and watched her with one eye, carefully, as she was still a stranger to him. I would have forgotten all about this seemingly ordinary child if it hadn’t been for the storm.
The moment Weylyn took his first bewildered gulp of fresh air, it began to snow. Not just a few flurries, but buckets of the stuff, tumbling through the sky and belly flopping on the ground outside the hospital room window. By the time the nurses had him cleaned and swaddled, there was a good six inches on the ground.
It was June 29.
The child turned one eye on me, then opened the other like a backward wink. His irises were molten pools of solder that had not yet set, and for a moment I thought I could see a fire behind them, keeping them liquid.
“He’s a healthy baby boy,” I told the mother, trying my best not to sound unnerved.
Weylyn’s eyes closed peacefully, and the snow melted almost as quickly as it had fallen, leaving shimmering gray puddles on the sidewalk below.
that is how i like my writing to be; it’s fluid, vivid, lightly cadenced, it’s just meat falling off the bone. it’s hard to describe, but when it’s done right, i’m all thrills and flutters. and when it’s done right in a debut? well, i dunno – because it rarely happens. even harington’s first, Lightning Bug, wasn’t anywhere near him at his full powers, and to me, he’s the gold standard for this kind of magical american folkloristic writing.
unlike harington’s invented town of stay more, arkansas, where magic and oddness was woven into the existence of the town and people, here weylyn stands alone, the gooey magical center around which the rest of the world remains ordinary. and it is this normal world who gets to tell his story – the novel is narrated by the people weylyn meets along his travels, some who become a sort of scattered surrogate family, relating their experiences with him throughout several different periods in his life in the brief pauses before he moves on again.
it’s just great. and if i don’t cut myself off here, i will go on and on all day and no one needs more of me babbling. i think this one’s a keeper. if you and me tend to have the same tastes, you should get on this one as soon as possible. if not, do it for merlin
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thoroughly enjoyable/magically delicious.
review to come.
