The Little Country

The Little Country (1991) Charles de Lint

While musing over a broken relationship that may lead to a broken tour of American, Janey searches the attic and finds a book by her favorite author–an author who was good friends with her grandfather–and discovers there was only a single copy of the book printed, and that her grandfather was requested to hide the book and keep it safe. From there we read not only Janey’s story, but the story in the book she has discovered in her grandfather’s attic.

Yesterday I must have picked up half a dozen book, read the first couple of paragraphs, and then put them back down with the thought, “this isn’t what I’m in the mood for.”

So I picked up The Little Country, because it was by Charles de Lint, so how could I go wrong?

Unfortunately, after reading the last page, I put the book down thinking, “well, that wasn’t what I was in the mood for either.”

I just could not get into this book. Probably the best way to describe it is that it was just entirely too long.

One problem was that point of view skipped around too much–and by this I don’t mean between the two stories. I liked the idea of a book within a book. But in the “main” story, the point of view kept shifting from Janey to everyone around her, be they good guys or bad guys or not so sure where they stand guys. So I never felt like I developed a relationship with the characters, either through their own thoughts and feelings, or through how Janey felt about them.

Another thing is that there was just entirely too much detail that simply struck me as unimportant. Like I said, the book just felt like it went on far longer than it needed to, and I might have liked it better had it been far shorter.

In general, the whole thing just felt off to me.

So, if you have not read Charles de Lint before, I do not recommend starting here. There are plenty of other excellent books and short story collections available–leave this one for after you’ve read everything else.
Rating: 5/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Full Dark House » »
• « « Staying Dead