Promises to Keep [Hardcover]

Charles De Lint (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 2007

After Widdershins, I thought I wouldn't write at length about Jilly again. I'd promised one more short story about her for Bill at Subterranean Press, but that would be it. Having left her in a good place at the end of Widdershins, I didn't want to complicate her life yet again, so I planned to set the story earlier in her life, during her first year as a student at Butler University. Except the story grew. I was having too much fun visiting with this younger Jilly, so I asked Bill if I could expand it to a short novel. He agreed, so now I m busily working away on this as-yet-untitled novella. It takes place in 1972 and begins with Jilly getting a surprise visit from an old friend--her only friend--from her runaway days. Interspersed with the main story that leads off from that meeting are flashbacks to pivotal moments in her life: time spent in the Home for Wayward Girls, her life on the street, meeting and working with the Grasso Street Angel, the first time she meets various familiar faces (Geordie, Sophie, etc.), and chronicles how the messed-up street kid she was grew a social conscience, and became the cheerful character we know from later stories. Although the book does deal with some serious subjects, the tone isn't all doom and gloom. And while I hope that those of you familiar with these characters will enjoy this visit with their younger selves, I'm also trying to make it a friendly entry into Newford for new readers. Lastly, I'm delighted to say that Mike Dringenberg--an artist I ve wanted to work with for ages--will be doing the cover. - Charles de Lint

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

After a childhood of abuse and drug addiction, Jilly Coppercorn, last seen in de Lint's Widdershins (2006), is well on her way to being normal as an art school student when she runs into Donna Birch, her only friend from the bad old days, at the start of this appealing urban fantasy set in Newford in 1972. Donna takes Jilly into a realm similar to this world, but where things have a way of working out better. It's almost a paradise, a place where dreams are almost too easily realized, until Jilly realizes that the inhabitants are actually dead, souls whose lives were unfulfilled. She can continue pleasantly enough, but only by abandoning her responsibilities to all the people who helped her back in the living world. While much of this will resonate more with longtime fans of de Lint's Newford series, the lucid writing and well-realized characters make this short novel accessible even to new readers. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

De Lint returns to Newford and Jilly Coppercorn's youth, which readers of The Onion Girl (2005) and other Jilly stories know was extremely painful. The setting here is Jilly's early college days. She is just beginning to put her abused past behind her. One evening she runs into her only friend from her days in a juvenile institution, one of the few who know her original name. Bass-playing Donna invites Jilly to see her band. But no one has heard of the club in question. That's not surprising in Newford, where things and people come and go, and some things exist only for those who can sense them. When Jilly goes walking with Donna after the show, she enters another town, in which she can put the past even further behind and be what she should have been without the intervening wasted years. De Lint presents Jilly's choices, the memories impelling them, and the solution to the riddle of Donna in his characteristic powerful yet intimate style. Jilly's reader friends, including those first meeting her, will be more than delighted. Murray, Frieda
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 175 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean; Deluxe edition (September 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159606126X
• ISBN-13: 978-1596061262
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #758,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful read, worth the wait, September 9, 2007

By 

Josh More "Entropologist - www.starmind.org" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Promises to Keep (Hardcover)

This weekend, my copy of Promises to Keep arrived. I had intended to let it sit until I had finished some of the work that I had do, but then it's hard to focus on preparing a talk when there is a bright shiny new Charles de Lint book sitting there looking at you. I swear, the book had little glistening eyes that watched everything I did and then suddenly looked away whenever I checked to see what it was doing. But I digress...

As stated in the "story about the book" on the inside cover, this was the book that grew from a short story that was to be put into a collection of stories that were never collected. It's about Jilly's early years in Newford, as Charles de Lint doesn't want to write more about her after Widdershins (Newford). It's a fine story which takes its time popping between Jilly's early life and "present day", which is when Jilly is in college. I won't spoil any of the plot points, but to say that it is fully consistent with the mythologies around Newford.

To digress a bit, the best thing about the first Alien movie was that no one really knew what the alien was. There was a sense of mystery and discovery there that wasn't possible to achieve in later films until AVP came along and reset the story. In many ways, this book does that for Newford. In fact, Charles de Lint states that he hopes that this book can become a good entry point for new readers. However, much like I wouldn't want a viewer to start with AVP, I wouldn't want a reader to start here.

There is as great a joy in rediscovery as there is in the initial discovery. If someone reads this book first, the later books will feel like review. However, if you start at the beginning with Dreams Underfoot and meander slowly through the rest of Newford, this book will feel like what it truly is. A sweet little bonus to Jilly's story; one that I'm happy to have.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Promises Kept, October 22, 2007

By 

Edwin M. Chitwood (Wooster, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Promises to Keep (Hardcover)

If you're considering this book, then you're probably already familiar with Jilly Coppercorn. This is a great way to delve into her past.
If you've never read a Charles de Lint book then you're in for a treat, though earlier books would be better to begin with. de Lint does his magic like no other writer. A mixture of Modern urban, Celtic & Indian myth/folklore, served with a side of human catalyst.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Promise Kept..., January 8, 2009

By 

Eliza Ann (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Promises to Keep (Hardcover)

I love Charles De Lint and my favorite are the Newford characters. It was interesting to find out more about Jilly Coppercorn's previous life and what made her become the person she is today. A dose of real life problems interwoven with real fantasy. He always has you believing that it all could possibly exist out there!