23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magic in the world around us, November 15, 2001
This review is from: Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection (Mass Market Paperback)
In the nineteen stories about the fictional Canadian city of Newford collected in this book, Charles de Lint relocates the mythical creatures of fairy tale and folklore from their traditional settings and surrounds them with urban scenery. As one character writes in the final story: "That was the real magic for me: the possibility that we only have to draw aside a veil to find the world a far more strange and wondrous place than its mundaneness allowed it could be." That quote sums up why I love the Newford stories than I ever could.
While not a novel, these stories do add up to more than the sum of their parts. Minor characters in one story may go on to star in stories of their own. Events in one tale have resonances later on. The reader is given a cross-sectional look at the small events that make up life in this city, and gets a chance to know its inhabitants.
De Lint's prose is gentle and relaxing. These stories almost beg to be read aloud, so that the reader can savor the language. Whenever I'm feeling upset, I know I can read one of de Lint's stories and feel better, just by "listening" to his voice. He doesn't always have something groundbreaking to say about people or life or love, but sometimes it's good to be reminded of things we already know to be true, and even better to be reminded in such a beautiful fashion.
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22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overcame my biases, January 28, 2003
This review is from: Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection (Mass Market Paperback)
No matter how much one reads, there's always an author or two that always seems to manage to slip through the cracks. For me, it was de Lint. I had read some stories by de Lint in Year's Best volumes, but never had picked up a novel or a collection. Spurred on by continual references to his writing on Rondua, and a recommendation from Alexlit (do you get the feeling that these two resources have been ruling my reading list lately? you'd be right), I picked up this collection of stories set in the fictional but familiar city of Newford.
The term used to pigeonhole de Lint's stories is "urban fantasy," in that he places the creatures of fantasy--goblins, faeries, etc.--into a realistic cityscape. This differs from the magic realism approach because many of de Lint's human characters are astonished to see the magic; in magic realism, the fantasy is taken as a given--as if it were normal. His major characters are a ragtag assortment of artists: Jilly Coppercorn, a painter and savior of strays; Christy Riddell, writer of fantasy stories and possibly de Lint's alter ego; Geordie Riddell, busker (a street musician) fiddler; Meran and Cerin, wife and husband duo of harp and flute.
I liked the stories, but had an initial unfavorable reaction to the entire book by the fawning introduction by Terri Windling, who also edited the book and did the cover art. It was lucky that the story containing a reference to Windling was halfway through the book, giving me enough of a taste of de Lint's true style. If the reference had been in the first story, I would likely have tossed the book across the room. In a case such as this, I think it better to let the stories speak for themselves, or maybe the introduction would have been better as an afterword. To belabor the point, there's a real danger in this almost incestial relationship between editor and author, writer and artist, creator and critic. Already walking a fine line by having a near alter-ego in Christy Riddell, the reader begins to wonder how much of this the author believes as fact or fiction himself. Self-referential comments are almost too precious, threatening the suspension of disbelief barrier, or at least, jarring the reader with the realization that they are reading, as in a film when the microphone boom dips into the shot.
The fact that de Lint overcame this problem is all due to the stories. As I read them, I kept saying to myself, this is nothing special, this is nothing different. They are fantasy stories, pure and simple. Take an old tale, graft it with an urban setting, and voila. Except that the characters start living in your mind. You start to know what Jilly will say, or look forward to seeing Geordie step into another characters' story. You start to feel for the characters, wanting the story to end with a happy ever after for them just like in a normal fairy tale, yet knowing that this is a different type of story. People get hurt, people suffer loss, people die.
The two best tales here are the ones original to this collection: "In the House of My Enemy," a story about child abuse, and "Ghosts of Wind and Shadow," a tale of belief and self-knowledge. The ones I liked least were the ones that had been written for theme anthologies. De Lint was good at keeping the flavor of Newford in these stories, but each still lacked something that the ones not written to meet a certain theme had--something organic, as if he had needed to force or bend the theme stories slightly, making them a little out of wack compared to his others. Although I enjoyed the collection, I am looking forward to reading a novel by de Lint rather than more short stories. His is a style and manner that can easily benefit from the longer form, and I am anxious to see exactly how true that statement can be.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantasic collection, May 7, 2002
This review is from: Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection (Mass Market Paperback)
Welcome to Newford, an average North American town. Well, maybe at first glance, but by the second, there is a little more than meets the eye. Meet Jilly, a strong independant woman who seems like she knows everyone and maybe a witch? Meran, is she wholey human? Geordie, an average joe, who thinks he met the woman of his dreams.
I really loved this book. There was soo many good stories, that it made it really hard to put the book down.
de Lint has a way of really coming across as a natural thought or natural flow of a story. Which is why this book is so involving to read, because this could be me and just maybe that knock on the wall isn't just the wind blowing the tree. Some of these stories kinda made it a little hard to sleep!
My favorite theme of these collection is the fact that our lives weave together with others as we live indepentantly. You meet one character learn a little, and than meet them six stories on. This auroa of magic that lays just beneath the sight of most people is just overwhelming. Makes life a little more interesting.
Enjoy Newford, because once you visit, Newford has left a little bit of it in you.
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