Customer Reviews

The Ivory and the Horn

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I haven't read a lot of DeLint's work, but this and his other two collections of short stories I found to be enchanting. I espically like that you find the same charachters in several of the stories, but from different perspectives so you really get to know the charachters. It's realistic in the way that people interact with thier circles of friends and the magical element is refreshing and makes you open your eyes to the world around you.......you may find yourself looking for the faries in the park without realising it after reading this book.

This second collection of urban fantasy stories from de Lint's fictional city of Newford is almost as pleasurable as the first. As before, each story can be read and enjoyed on its own, but taken as a whole, they build subtly upon each other, and on stories from Dreams Underfoot, to create a whole portrait of a city that is greater than the sum of its parts. De Lint's lyrical, beautiful prose subtly underplays the magic, making it completely believable that there truly is this greater world beyond the one we ordinarily perceive.

The only reason I give this book four stars rather than five is the apparent influence that author/attorney Andrew Vachss has on this collection. Vachss's work crusading against crimes against children is indeed an admirable goal. However, several stories in a row in The Ivory and the Horn pick up on those themes--one even mentioning Vachss as someone one of the characters has had contact with--and it lends that particular section a samey sort of feeling, as opposed to the variety I prefer to find in short story collections. Individually, the stories are just fine. I simply would have prefered to see them presented in a different order, to keep the recurring themes from feeling so obvious.

This is always the book I recommend for those who have never read De Lint's work before. These stories show the magic of everyday life and provide inspiration for surmounting difficulties. De Lint is amazing for his ability to write from a woman's perspective...like one of the previous reviewers, "Bird Bones and Wood Ash" is definitely my favorite story in the collection. Anyone interested in the human condition, whether or not they are fans of fantasy writing, will be drawn in by this collection of stories.

"There are two gates of sleep. One is of horn, easy passage for the shades of truth; the other, of gleaming white ivory, permits false dreams to ascend to the upper air."

- The Aeneid, by Virgil

"Any place is a desert when there's more going on underground than on the surface."

- "The Bone Woman"

As usual with de Lint, all but one of the stories herein have appeared previously, half having been written for themed anthologies (noted parenthetically). The Newford stories among them often showcase supporting characters from among Jilly Coppercorn's circle. The style often alternates between third person and first person within a single story.

"Bird Bones and Wood Ash" (original) are the residue left behind when Jaime uses the fey gifts given to her after her lover's death. She enters the dreams of monsters, those who abuse the weak, leaving them incapable of harming anyone again - and that's *before* she meets the protagonist of "The Forest Is Crying". But every action has consequences, actions between people most of all.

Jilly's Geordie first sees "The Bone Woman" accomplishing a minor miracle: getting Ellie the street person to *connect* with her in conversation. But the Bone Woman worries him, even before he hears legends about her...

"Coyote Stories" are stories of Coyote the trickster who's always in trouble, but also stories of the ordinary men who left the reserve for the city. Mostly, it's the story of Albert, who took his lack of money as an omen, quit drinking, then started to stand up for himself and others. "...[Everybody], we're a set of stories, and what those stories are is what makes us what we are."

"Dead Man's Shoes" (from TOUCH WOOD: NARROW HOUSES, VOLUME 2), according to a new/old belief on the street, must be removed to keep a murder victim from 'walking'. But why would Macaulay care if E walks or not? (Revolves around the Grasso Street Angel, who keeps seeing the victim in her dreams, but can't figure out what he wants.)

"Dream Harder, Dream True" (from TEMPORARY WALLS) Jean, who dreamed of hard-boiled heroes rescuing fallen good-hearted women, found an angel with a broken wing on his doorstep one night. Sophie's family background makes an appearance.

"The Forest Is Crying" (from THE EARTH STRIKES BACK) When a young woman asks the protagonist - a social worker deeply depressed over a little boy's death caused by a woman skilled at befuddling judges - to help save the rainforests, he rejects her, saying that trees don't cry; kids do. But the rainforest girl is interested in more than trees' pain - even a total stranger drinking himself sick in depression.

"The Forever Trees" The viewpoint alternates between 1st-person dreamer, 3rd-person following the dreamer, 3rd-person following her best friend Joe.

"Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery" - the childhood fantasy of the narrator, Jilly's fellow artist Sophie, whom Jilly says has faery blood. Although Sophie still has a rich dream life, she drifted away from the Emporium until a total stranger, seeing her in a store, cried out that she was the person responsible for evicting poor Mr. Truepenny...

"Pal O'Mine" (from CHRISTMAS FOREVER) At Christmas the narrator remembers her best friend, a composer who never fit a mold, who hated the hypocrisy of the season: the once-a-year charity hand-in-hand with conspicuous consumption. A woman of contradictions...

When Jilly encounters Tommy from "Waifs and Strays", he asks her not for the story of her painting-in-progress but of "The Pochade Box" - the antique box of colours serving as one of her tools. Jilly's present narrative alternates with the story-within-a-story of Jilly's encounters with the spirit of the box's former owner. "What's it like when you're dead?" "You still dream."

"Saxophone Joe and the Woman in Black" (see reviews of CATFANTASTIC III) "What gets me is how everybody's looking to make sense of things. Sometimes you don't want sense. Sometimes, the last thing in the world you need is sense."

"A Tempest in Her Eyes" (from WEIRD TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE) follows up "The Conjure Man" from DREAMS UNDERFOOT, but this time Wendy narrates. While she still nurtures her Tree of Tales, she's going through a creative drought until the night her friends take her to the final performance of a run of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.

"Waifs and Strays" (see the collection WAIFS AND STRAYS) introduces Maisie and Tommy, denizens of the mean streets of Newford.

"Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night" Sophie meets a grieving man in the waking world whom she half-remembers meeting in dreams, but his dreamworld reflects the southwestern desert and the Big Reservation, not her own Mabon.

"The Wishing Well" alternates between Brenda - sometime writer/reporter, now the paper's advertising manager - and 3rd person, allowing us to see Brenda as she sees herself, then as others see her. When Brenda buckles down to "get her life on track" - a debt management plan at the bank, cutting up her credit cards, a new diet, and quitting smoking at the same time...it's not surprising that she becomes so stressed that she withdraws to her private place to think - an old wishing well near an abandoned motel, where she can almost hear the memory of old wishes.

One of my all-time favorite folk singers was Odetta Holmes. God, what a voice she had! Nobody could equal her renditions of "The Fox," "John Henry," "Waterboy," or "Jack 'o Diamonds". My favorite album by her was _Odetta at the Gate of Horn_ (1957). The title came from classical Greek and Roman mythology. There is, so the poets say, a cavern near the border of Hades. The gods and godesses send dreams to mortals out of this cave. True dreams emerge through the gate of horn. False dreams weave their way out of a gate of ivory.

Charles de Lint's _The Ivory and the Horn_ (1995) is a collection of fifteen stories with this allusion firmly in mind, for all of the stories deal with dreams. Are the dreams true or false? I would say that they are mostly true. But even true dreams can be enigmatic, mysterious, and dangerous. A number of de Lint's heros and heroines must solve the mystery of their dreams in order to solve a problem in their own life. For de Lint, the world of dreams is as real as our own world.

And what is the waking world of the characters? It is the city of Newford, which has many of the same problems as other urban areas: poverty, crime, child abuse. But Newford has gargoyles on all of its buildings. Sometimes you can see ghosts, angels, werewolves, and fairy women there. On occasion, the trickster Coyote makes an appearance in one of his guises.

Though there is no single character who appears in all of the stories, many characters appear in more than one tale. These include a social worker burned out by all of the evil that he sees on the street, two women painters who are sensitive to the supernatural in different ways, an angelic counselor of people in trouble, a mentally retarded young man, and the "sister" who has adopted him.

Some stories relate events while giving a sense that there is another story lurking just beyond it: "Saxaphone Jones and the Woman in Black," "Coyote Stories," and "The Forever Trees". I like the stories that are a bit less ambiguous. My favorites are: "The Wishing Well," for its truly original supernatural idea; "Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery," which captured my love of bookstores; "Where Desert Spirits Crowd the Night," for its mystery of Coyote and the Dream Desert; and "Dead Man's Shoes," for its treatment of a ghost and a serial killer.

De Lint is something of a Romantic. His stories frequently give you the sense that you are looking around corners into a world different from our own-- but one no less real for all that.

Charles de Lint is my all time favorite author. This collection of short stories adds substance to the Newford mythology. If you enjoy his other books and collections, you won't be disappointed.

Completely breathtaking! Maybe my favorite book of all time? A compilation of short stories dealing a lot with those down on there luck or out on the streets. I originally read this when I myself was fighting the Wisconsin winters under a bridge, and it's beauty kept me warm, and it's messages gave me hope. To repeat what someone else said, it does cause you to 'look for the fairies in the park with out even knowing it" and gives you a renewed faith in so many things you lost as a child, and so many things you face as an adult.

I taught "The Pochade Box" and a student picked out "Dead Men's Shoes" from this collection to be taught by both of us. I read this collection originally some years ago and was delighted how much I loved re-reading it this spring. There are many wonderful stories in here.

I LOVE this book. From the very first page, I was completely drawn into the world that the author creates. De Lint's charachters-especially the women-are totally believable. His insight into the female mind is almost uncanny. As a woman, I read this book thinking, "Yes, I've felt that," and "Yes-I've done that." I could completely identify with these women. While De Lint deals with some very important issues in his stories, (child abuse, AIDS, the environment) the reader doesn't come away feeling like they've been preached at. The book has a strong emotional impact, but it is never heavy handed or saccharine. More than anything, these stories are beautiful. I was profoundly touched by "Bird Bones and Wood Ash." Once I read it, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I immedeately bought copies of this book to give to my friends, so they could read it too. There is a magic in "The Ivory and the Horn" that made me want to share it with other people. Anyone who has ever loved fairy tales will love Charles De Lint; because in his books, the wonder and the mystery of the Faerie world is interwoven with everyday common existance. That isn't an easy task, but I feel that this author has accomplished it brilliantly.

This is the best book that I have ever read. I love the mixture of characters. As with most people, Jilly Coppercorn is my favorite character and I really love reading stories of her. The wishing well is my favorite story in the book. And the one with Coyote (I don't remember what is called). This book is pure magic. I'd suggest it to anyone who loves a good read which delves into fantasy.