Customer Reviews

Plainsong

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Oh glorious discovery of something magical that just happens upon us by chance. Oh the enchanting memories, the gems of ghostlike images that I recall so many years after reading Plainsong. The whimsical aura of a fantasy world with a very original concept. 'The Big One' has happened, and the earth's beauty is all that remains except the children and the animals, and they learn how to communicate with each other. It is very entertaining. However five special adults are spared, and linked in someway. In the glorious countryside that Ms. Grabien paints, the remainder of humans await a new child, perhaps a new savior, or someone to rekindle a new hope. The author understands the many facets of symbolism, and touches it gracefully. The characters are very personable and deep with emotion, and the areas surrounding the story are brought to life with exceptional purity and prose that dance in your senses like lightning bugs in a mason jar at your bedside.

I was thirteen years old and was in a an old mill town with my family. We hardly had enough for a boxed lunch at the time. I remember the day like it was only yesterday, however nearly 16 or 17 years ago. I remember the clouds in the sky, and even what my beautiful mother had on that day. We were in a bargain bookstore, one of those johnny come lately types of places that is there one day and seemingly 'poof' the next. I found Plainsong in the bargain, (ultra bargain) bin for fifty cents. The title immediately grabbed my attention. I think I was reading 'Eyes of the Dragon' at the time, King's fantasy eating away at my creative angst, and the cover of Plainsong sort of inrigued me sitting next to the oversized cookbooks. Even a dollar at the time was alot for anyone in my family, but I was given permission to sit on the floor of this dollar book basement and after I read the synopsis on the cover, I was into it headstrong like a young boy with a crisp twenty at a penny candy store somewhere on the Cape. I was so enchanted by this far away world that Ms. Grabien had painted for me I never wanted to leave it. I had not yet discovered the epic power of C.S. Lewis or Tolkien at that age, and I am so glad I didn't. Possiblly like those acerebral elitist of amazon, worried perhaps that I would throw it to the hounds of hell anything that remotely even tried to compare with the likes of those greats. I had nothing to compare it to. I was an engaged virgin in the world of apocalyptic faux relegious fantasy. My family was devote Roman Catholic. I was a lost youth who didn't know anything than what my remote world told me: that God was true, Jesus was the son of man, and question nothing as prayer and repentence is the word and all will be well for you. Stuff of nonsense. Well the reason I mention all that relegious babbling is the number of times I questioned my mother with references in the book to biblical events or how the 'Crows' in the book were named after the gospels of the bible, and how I found that so ironic, that she could make this imaginary world, where only children and animals surviving a huge catastrophic disaster, symobolically relegious in anyway, and yet with no real touching of any type of Godlike, fundmentalist touch to it. But the imagery, even at thirteen was there regardless. I could see in this warped relegion I was in, how ignorant the one tracked minded followers were. But here I was God. I was creating another world, where I saw fit who got along with each other.

The premise of the book, as there are a few Plainsong's that have come out through the years, and not to be confused with those, is:

After an event that wipes out nearly all of humanity, only a a few (or choosen?) children, birds, and animals are left to enjoy Earth's beauty. Evidentally through time, they learn to communicate with eath other, often times in hilarious banter. Five adults have also been spared from the plague that swept away everyone else. They all seem to await, or know of the coming of another; a child perhaps who has the answers, perhaps a new world order, or a new hope.

There are some purist, dolt professeurs or older Mercedes driving woman who write reviews perhaps for the LA Times, who would say the book had little plot and went nowhere fast. I feel really bad for these type of people. The ones that work for a company for so long, they becaome pre-programmed robots, with cookie cutter personalities, and who soccer mom their world of total pessimism and do nothing optimism to experiences of an author that is able to take someone, especially a child to a magical place, away from fueding parents, sibling rivarly, family dramas, and the like.

Please don't let the relegious connotations turn you off. Believe me I am the utmost agnostic now, (after college I lost all my faith) and it really just skims that surface. Which is great as the author lets the reader decide, in their own personal beliefs, what to conjure up after reading it. Though the message, the pure power of this story, is knowing she used details from the bible to portray her characters in a way that doesn't overdo it. I think you will appreciate that. It's a quick read. I finished it in a few hours, and since it's been out of print for so long, it's great you can still get it on amazon.

If I only had a better supplement to my income, I surely would find a fine cinematographer, ask Ms. Grabien if I could write the screenplay, and make this into a tiny, feel good, mini fantasy film that I am sure would find its niche in today's heyday of crap. One can dream still, at least that hasn't been taken away by the masses.

Enjoy this!

I stumbled across this book quite by accident; Ms. Grabien is an extraordinary writer. Fantasy fiction, like most genres, is choked with re-writes of a handful of themes. Ms. Grabien has taken a few threads from different classic fantasy themes, added her own spinnings, and woven them all together in an entirely original way to create a book of great imagination, spirit, wonder and magic. This book has luminousity. I want to live in it. If you ever come across it - or I suspect any others written by her - please grab it before I do!

Oh yes, the theme - the Big One has struck, and several ancient beings travel across the bucolic face of England, to be present at the birth of the new... And by the way, all the grown-ups are dead, while children and animals talk to each other. But it's not as precious as it sounds.

This is set in a post plague England somewhere along the current time. Most of humanity has died out, leaving only a few adults and mostly children. Some animals have regained intelligence and can communicate telepathically. There is a conflict between the old world religious order and what is coming with the new turn of the wheel. Some of the animals are reincarnations of previous guardians who have seen this change before and are gathering together for a birth and the rebirth of the world unless the old order can put a stop to it. In some ways the book is reminiscent of CS Lewis, and in others it is quite unique. The religious references may bother some, from both ends of the spectrum, but I did not find them to be overwhelming to the story. It wasn't what I expected from reading her Haunted Ballad series, but was still an intriguing book.

This book deserves to be read by everyone, and kept on a shelf with the classics. It's the Age of Aquarius come true.

Deborah Grabien is such a fantastic author! I read Plainsong about two years ago and loved it! I'm in the middle of it right now. Apparently the newspapers, etc. are comparing her books to those of C.S. Lewis and Madeline L'Engle, I've never read any of their books, but if they're anything like what Ms. Grabien has written, then expect me to be reading them soon. Of course this book has a few religious insights, which I loved, but others may not. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.