{"id":298,"date":"2006-08-15T21:42:58","date_gmt":"2006-08-16T04:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=298"},"modified":"2021-05-30T21:34:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T01:34:24","slug":"the-little-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/298","title":{"rendered":"The Little Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Little Country<\/a><\/em> (1991) Charles de Lint<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

So I picked up The Little Country<\/em>, because it was by Charles de Lint, so how could I go wrong?<\/p>\n

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

I just could not get into this book. Probably the best way to describe it is that it was just entirely too long. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In general, the whole thing just felt off to me.<\/p>\n

So, if you have not read Charles de Lint<\/a> 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.
\nRating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,2,291,34],"tags":[71,161],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthology","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-urban-fantasy","tag-charles-de-lint","tag-newford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-4O","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":202,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/202","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":0},"title":"Jack of Kinrowan","author":"Michelle","date":"March 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Jack of Kinrowan (1995) Charles de Lint Jack of Kinrowan is actually two books: Jack the Giant Killer and Drink Down the Moon. In Jack the Giant Killer, the Seelie Laird of Kinrowan's daughter has been stolen by the Unseelie Court, despite the fact that she was being escorted by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Jack-of-Kinrowan.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3283","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":1},"title":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint","author":"Michelle","date":"November 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint I love Charles de Lint. I believe I have all of his mass published story anthologies, and several of the smaller press novellas, so I'd read most of the stories in this collection. Doesn't matter. I can read his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Very-Best-of-Charles-de-Lint.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3550,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3550","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":2},"title":"Companions to the Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Companions to the Moon (2007) Charles de Lint This is a short story that's not connected to Newford--just the story of a woman who thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her, and what she discovers. Of course, this is Charles de Lint, so you never expect what she discovers. Charles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Companions to the Moon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/companions-t-the-moon-196x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":206,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/206","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":3},"title":"The Onion Girl","author":"Michelle","date":"March 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Onion Girl (2001) Charles de Lint First things first, this is an excellent book. It's the Jilly book that you always wanted, getting inside her head and learning why she's the way she is. However, I have to admit that this is one Charles de Lint book that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/01\/Onion-Girl.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":102,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/102","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":4},"title":"A Circle of Cats","author":"Michelle","date":"July 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A Circle of Cats (2003) Charles de Lint Illustrated by Charles Vess I received this book for my birthday from Brian and Stacie. (THANKS!) I'd placed it on my wish list solely because it was written by Charles de Lint, and as usual, I wasn't disappointed. A Circle of Cats\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/07\/Circle-of-Cats-e1520944758677.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/115","url_meta":{"origin":298,"position":5},"title":"The Wild Wood","author":"Michelle","date":"August 21, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Wild Wood (1994) Charles de Lint Eithnie feels like she has lost something in her paintings, and is wandering the woods near her home searching for the soul that used fill her paintings. Originally published in '94, Orb rereleased The Wild Wood in 2004. It's a very short book,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fantasy"","block_context":{"text":"Fantasy","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/fantasy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2005\/08\/Wild-Wood.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}