Customer Reviews

Mockingbird: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you grew up in a dysfunctional family--and have developed a gallows humor about it--you should find something to relate to in this novel. Even if you did manage to escape the dysfunction dance while growing up, Stewart's characters are so true to life and the magic is woven through the story in such an easygoing and natural way that the novel is very entertaining--and believable.

Toni Beauchamp lives in present day Houston and has always been the responsible one in her family, taking care of everyone, and cleaning up the family's dirty laundry when her troubled mother is periodically possessed by one of the voodoo gods who inhabit the household. But when Momma dies, Toni's responsibility takes on new, unwelcome and magical dimensions. It couldn't come at a worse time, as Toni has just gotten pregnant. She is forced to confront a range of emotions and a whole new set of experiences.

Most of the major characters in this novel are women and Sean Stewart did not hit a false note, in my opinion, in the portrayal of these very different feminine psyches. Stewart manages to make you laugh at the wreckage without downplaying the pain, to lament without getting maudlin, and--without lapsing into melodrama--portrays the razor's edge between love and hate which exists in many families. Strangely enough, this novel is a kind of loving tribute of the messiness of families, showing how surviving the source of our weakness and terrible pain is also the source of our individuality and our ultimate strength. It is an admirable tightrope walk, sometimes profound, sometimes laughable, very human--and fun.

Not the fantasy/SF Sean Stewart's fans might expect, but a kind of funny southern gothic, with a little magic realism thrown in for good measure. I've read all Stewart's books, but this one is far and away the best - and includes the most hysterical, and accurate description of morning-sickness I've ever read. (All I'll say it that it involves a revolving restaurant, a Cobb salad, and a voodoo curse.) If you've not yet discovered Stewart, here's the place to start. And if you already know his work, get ready to enjoy.

Once in a while, I reach a point in a book when I have to stop and realize "Oh, this is going to be GOOD." Sometimes that is early on, sometimes it is not until halfway through. Some books make that promise but don't deliver, and others never even make the promise in the first place. Sean Stewart's "Mockingbird" not only has that moment, but it delivers on it brilliantly.

It happens on page three, with the description of Geronimo, the zombie frog.

What seems at first like something clever, funny, almost cute in its concept (the idea of a zombie frog) becomes something far more disturbing and real when examined more closely. This simple event, something that happens fairly early in Toni Beauchamp's life, sets the stage for the story and the tone for the rest of the novel. It was my "Oh, this is going to be good" moment...and oh, it was.

As the story begins, Toni Beauchamp's mother dies, and she is left to figure out what to do with her debt, both spiritual and financial, as well as what to do with her inheritance -- her mother's gift for magic. Thing is, she doesn't want that gift. Her mother, a famous (in some circles) voodoo practitioner, has kept magic a part of her life and her daughters' lives, and Toni wants to be done with it. She finds, however, that she doesn't have much choice, and her family's gift has a way of creeping back into her life again and again.

Sean Stewart is at his best when he dances along the edge of the fantastic, but he always manages to keep his feet in the real world as well. Just as he did in the excellent "Perfect Circle," his story in "Mockingbird" treats magic and mysticism as only a part of his characters' lives, and not even the most significant part. His characters still have jobs, they still have friends, families, and all the little details that make up all of our lives -- and as if that didn't make things complicated enough, they have to add magic into the mix as well. In "Mockingbird," as in the best of Stewart's stories, a real-world sensibility is what grounds the story, even when the story is about magic. It is a difficult feat to pull off, but I have never seen anyone do it better than Stewart does.

When you can tell a story about voodoo, family, pregnancy, dating, possession, and even have a zombie frog in there, and make it all work together, you know you've got something good. "Mockingbird" is a novel that gets all of it right, and you'll know it right from somewhere on page three.

I first discovered Sean Steward in Perfect Circle, which is his best book to date in my not-so-humble opinion. This one comes close though. In this book, like Perfect Circle, Stewart writes in a way that is very readable and occasionally drops in such clever and well-written phrases and sentences that I actually stepped back and appreciated the writing skill as well as the story. That is not to say that you lose your immersion in the story, and it is not to say that he is wordy or pretentious. Just the opposite. It is prose that is a delight to read.

The story is interesting, but it is the characters that will drive you to the end. That is Stewart's strength. He writes people you are interested in knowing more about.

In a nutshell, I'd recommend Perfect Circle and Mockingbird as a pair - great reading!

I really enjoyed this book, zombie frogs, voodoo Riders, and all the perils and tribulations possible while being pregnant when I wasn't pregnant yet. After getting pregnant, though, man, it's *really* funny and it's really obvious that the man did some real research into the problems. Mockingbird is more easy going than some of Stewart's other books, warmer, funnier, and much more involved with the everyday things that go with someone's life with all the complexities, absurdities, and joy that goes with it. It still has that touch of magic he brings to everything, and I highly recommend it.

Zombie frogs, cursed oilfields, and mouth-watering Mexican recipes abound in this wild tale of one young woman's trip from daughterhood to motherhood. I don't usually read SF, but a friend recommended this book, and I loved it. It reminded me a bit of Like Water for Chocolate, or like one of Anne Rice's witch-books....except this writer has a sense of humor.

Go to the "look inside the book" function above, and click on "excerpt;" that takes you to the first page of Sean Stewart's Mockingbird. (You can also get there through the "intro pages" links.) Read the first paragraph. If you're hooked, like I was, you'll love this book.

Like me, you may instantly flip to the bio to check the author's gender. Sean, Sean, isn't that a guy's name? And is he really writing from the first-person perspective of a woman who, the book's first sentence makes plain, gets pregnant in the course of the story?

Yep. And most of the other main characters are women, too. This is a high-wire act, and boy does Stewart pull it off. I found his characters and their magical-realist situation very believable, and he writes with style, and humor that's richer than wit or cleverness.

I can't say I'm surprised by any of that, except the first-person thing. What brought me to Mockingbird is, of all things, Stewart's entry into franchise fiction: his book Yoda: Dark Rendezvous, a Star Wars novel set very shortly before the upcoming movie "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith." I've read dozens of Star Wars novels, and this is one of my two or three favorites, again for how Stewart fleshes out characters' inner lives and for the color in his writing. (The book feels like he had a *great* time writing it.) I'm going on about it at length here to bring it to the attention of Stewart fans who might not otherwise try a Star Wars novel. If you saw Ep.II in 2002 and plan to see Ep.III, try it out. You don't need any more background than that, and it'll enhance your enjoyment of Yoda, Count Dooku, and the movies' other characters.

Sean Stewart has produced yet another great fantasy novel that differs from his others in the same way Nobody's Sun was different from Resurrection Man. This time, he's chosen to explore the intersection of voudon, white folk magic, and Mexican folk magic -- and the result is brilliant.

A magical-realism-Southern-family-saga, with voodoo thrown in, thought it's never called voodoo, and isn't the popular image of voodoo...and many, many intriguing twists. Set in Houston, it's the story of the daughters of Elena, recently deceased, who could foresee the future, cast small spells, even raise the dead, but mostly--terrifyingly--is the host to six Riders, small gods, the eerie fetishes of which she keeps in a chifferobe in the living room. When she is being Ridden, then it's these small gods' turns to walk around, change lives, give advice or orders which no one would think opf disobeying...And after she dies, it's the responsibility/curse of her elder daughter, a practical, plain, money-making actuary, to take over...

Really well done. Strange and intriguing without being mad-slasher-esque.

Mockingbirds Magic

The Book Mockingbird is set in present-day Houston Texas. Written by Sean Stewart, this novel is about a woman and her life becoming a mother while accepting her mother's last gift to her, a sip from the mockingbird cordial.
Toni Beauchamp, the main character, never wanted to accept that her mother was different in the sense that she had magic. She thought of her mother, Elena Beauchamp, as living in her own little world, at times temporarily completely controlled by the "Riders," one of the six gods. When her mother died, Toni thought that she was rid of all of her mothers silly magic except for the magic that her sister, Candy, inherited which was the ability to see happy thing in the future.
It is easy to understand why Toni does not want her mother's powers. One day, she and Candy went to the Galleria, a shopping mall, to buy clothes. By this time Toni was already artificially pregnant. She had already spent approximately 6 thousand dollars on clothes, when Sugar, one of the "Riders" mounted Toni. Sugar had complete control over her body. She spent an extra 28 thousand dollars on clothes. These clothes were Sugars, not Toni's even though they were spent with Toni's credit card. Anything that you buy while one of the "Riders" mounts you is theirs. Two hours later when Sugar left her body and Toni regained control over herself again, she felt dizzy and quiet sick. This is just one episode out of many when the "Riders" come in contact with Toni.
Throughout the book Toni describes short clippings of a story that her mother used to tell her when she was little. The story is about a lost little girl (who is also another one of the "Riders"). The lost little girl is trying to find her way home after her mother has left her. Through the whole story, the lost little girl has encounters with all of the other "Riders" at some point in the story. Toni soon finds out that the story her mother used to tell her plays a very important and a very real part in her life. She finds out several extremely shocking things that she would have wanted to know earlier on in her life. Then she figures out that almost everyone knows except for her and her sister, Candy.
Stewart's novel has an overall great supply of detail and thoroughly describes the acceptance that the characters have to accept and the relationships between mother and daughter.