Customer Reviews

RED SHIFT

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I am amazed that Alan Garner's "Red Shift" is out of print, and also that I am the first reviewer of it on Amamzon.com

Garner's "Red Shift" is a culmination of his development as a novelist, starting with the fantasy adventure "The Weirdstone of Brisingamen", before he completely changed, and wrote his "Stone Book" quartet, stories of his ancestors, stonemason, blacksmith, and others. Increasingly, from "Weirdstone" to "Red Shift", Garner's use of fantasy moves from overt to inner. In his first books ancient forces, old gods and creatures, co-exist in our own modern world. Although Garner was not entirely original in writing such stories, it seems that his were the first that spawned many similar stories for children and adults. But the Merlin-like magician in "Weirdstone" develops into the psychological presence, a form of possession, in the modern characters of "The Owl Service" (the novel immediately before "Red Shift") who find themselves repeating the actions of love, lust, murder and revenge which are told in the Welsh myth of Llew Llaw Gyffes and Gronw Pebwyr in "The Mabingogion".

In "red Shift" the move from outer fantasy of "Weirdstone" to inner possession of modern characters in "Owl Service" becomes the shared consciousness, at moments of trancelike crisis for sets of characters living in three separate eras: post-Roman Britain, the English Civil War, and modern Manchester. An ancient Stone Age axe head is the focus of this possession-like shared consciousness.

Through "Red Shift" Garner tells three stories, each from a different time, but each set in the shared location, and each mirroring the pattern of relationships of the others. Through this book, a fourth relationship is demanded by Garner, namely the reader piecing together what is happening, and how each story connects with the others.

Few other writers attempt such complex, powerful narratives. Perhaps Robert Cormier, another difficult Young Adult writer, or William Mayne, come closest, with stories of similar narrative tangling, and emotional intensity: "I Am the Cheese" and "After the First Death" by Cormier, or "A Game of Dark" and "The Jersey Shore" by Mayne.

The experience of reading Garner, in "Red Shift", and later through the "Stone Quartet", is like that of reading poetry, or listening to music, where images, words, feelings and experiences resonate and connect, an event in one story chiming like an echo of another, forcing the reader to reconsider what has already been experenced in the light of new facets of similar actions.

Neil Philip's study of Garner "A Fine Anger" is an excellent introduction to Garner's work, and his fascinating use of literary and mythic sources.

What is "Red Shift" about? Imagine a story of a boy and girl, on the edge of falling in love, each trapped in their own cage made of different family background, tormented by the differences between one another, and by their mutual betrayals. Meanwhile in post-Roman Britain, a lost patrol of Roman soldiers, surrounded by pagan tribes, decides to go tribal - descending into their own hearts of darkness, madness, rape and murder. And, at the same time, a simple-minded lad watches his adored girlfriend raped by soldiers in the English Civil War. Flashes of epileptic insight enable each of the central male characters to see through one another's eyes, hardly comprehending what is happening. The "red shift" itself is many things - a red petticoat, a bloody recourse to action, the hurtling apart of distant galazies, and the corresponding rushing apart of lonely people.

Very subtle. Undoubtedly difficult. But deeply rewarding!

A bitter, dense, vigorous book about the violence and betrayals we inflict on each other. So much is lost along the way - and although there is some survival at the end, what kind of survival is it?
There are three interwoven stories, spanning three points in time and one in space - the times are the later Roman Empire in Britain, the British Civil War of the 17th century, and the modern age. The space is a part of Cheshire around an iconic hill, Mow Cop. And the three are linked - apart from their biting emotional motifs - by an object, a prehistoric axe head, that appears in all, a talisman of the ages.
In the earliest thread, a ragged remnant of a Roman legion - just a few soldiers, conscripts from who-knows-where - have to deal with the wild and ancient tribes, as vicious and crafty as the soldiers. Wonderfully, Garner has made them talk the lingo of modern squaddies, because that's how they would have sounded to each other. In the Civil War, villagers take refuge in a church from the prowling band of enemy - but not all the hatred is political...In today's world, a near-genius innocent, a sacred fool (who quotes Lear's lines for Tom the fool) is paired with a girl above his social level and distrusted by his parents: there are no swords here, but "words" is an anagram of "sword" and the pain is the same.
Incredible tight, elliptical exchanges: you may have to read a page twice to "get" everything that is happening (and then you won't be sure). American readers may have a problem with the British idiom of the 70's and some archaic words of the Civil War times, and the Cheshire idiom, but it's worth it.

My review of this book will never be as articulate as the one written before mine, but I would like to express my opinion of "Red Shift". I have recommended it to so many friends who have all given up before they have reached 50 pages in. I must admit that I was tempted to do the same, though I cannot be more glad to have persevered. The story finds clarity in the last few pages (and in the wonderful encoded passage at the end!) If you have time to devote to this book, it is worth all the effort. Truly greater than "The Wierdstone".

This was one of the most difficult books I read as a kid - and so ultimately one of the most satisfying too. Alan Garner in no way talks down to his target audience and here he produced possibly his best work with a plot that demands the reader's attention. If only all books were this well written!

It was dark and I was lost driving home. I tried to take a shortcut across the Staffordshire Moorlands. Something said I should turn left to cross the ridge to the next valley. I climbed a hill, then silhouetted against the moonlit sky was a shape I knew from this book jacket: Mow Cop. I had to leave the car and venture on foot into the gloom, stomach turning, mouth dry. The point of Red Shift is, perhaps, that our destiny is in some part the essence of the soil under our feet. This book succeeds so well in implanting this feeling that words were not needed to create in me the emotion of meeting Mow Cop that night.

Ursula Le Guin described this as: "a bitter, complex, brilliant book".

I've nothing to add to that. Except this: try to find a copy at all costs. It is one of the best fantasies ever written. Oh, and if you're wondering: it's all of 155 pages long.

"Red Shift", by Alan Garner, is a good try that fails. The novel weaves three separate stories separated by centuries, sharing only a mysterious location ("Mow Cop", in western England) and a stone age artifact. Also, each story line features its own seriously disturbed young man.

The stories are certainly moody, and there are some terrifically rendered characters, but it's just too hard to follow the action, particularly at the start. We get the "who", the "when", the "where", a hint of the "why", but digging out the "what" is a challenge. Worse, the author gives us little or no reason to be interested in the main story's miserable protagonist -- a suffering narcissist given to petty meanness.

I hung with the book to the end, but never really enjoyed it.

I first read this around the age of 15, and it left a deep impression. I came back to it recently when picking out books for the next generation, and read it again. Wow. Its combination of three braided stories in three different eras is vivid and emotionally rich. It reads almost like poetry, with every word counting. It may be intended for a "young adult" audience but it is literature.

I discovered this book by chance when browsing in a used book store, and read it with no expectations other than the quote from Ursula Le Guin on the cover: "A bitter, complex, brilliant book." It turned out to be one of the most challenging and rewarding reads of the year.

There's three interwoven stories, each in the same location. The first and central story is a romance between two teenagers in 1973 England, with one going off to college. The kids are wistful, honest, confused, very intelligent, and trying to hold onto the one thing they know is sure in the world.

They stood in the shelter of the tower, holding each other, rocking with gentleness.
"I love you," said Jan.
"I'm coming to terms with it."
" - love you."
"But there's a gap."
"Where?"
"I know things, and feeling things, but the wrong way round. That's me: all the right answers at none of the right times. I see and can't understand. I need to adjust my spectrum, pull myself away from the blue end. I could do with a red shift."

The second story focuses on a small band of the lost Roman Ninth Legion trying to blend in with the first century tribes of Britain. Religion, subversion, and revelation rise among the brutality of war. One of them, Macey, is prone to berserker-like fits. Anyone who likes military fiction, or gritty fantasy, will appreciate the realistic depictions of their battles, all laced in Vietnam-like delirium.

"You and Magoo stand sentry," said Logan, "but listen. All of you get this, and get it good. The guards have been taken out, maybe not by Cats. The Mothers have come south. They'll raid the Cats wherever they find them, and both sides will whip our ass if we let them. Solutions."
"The usual," said Face. "Divide and rule. Hit the infrastructure."
"Correct. All right? We retreat until we're clear of the Mothers, then we go tribal."

The third story takes us to St. Bertoline's church, in Barthomley, 1643, when the Irish are invading the countryside. It's much like "The Crucible" in terms of a love triangle mixed with religious fervor, and it ties in with the other stories with a stone artifact that appears throughout the novel.

A single bell began to ring over the parish.
"Is it church time already?" said Margery.
"No. My father. He thinks we'll be up against reasonable men."
"Have you seen them?"
"Nearly. I rode down through Crewe by Oak Farm. They'd not left any alive. I must go and stop that bell. They'll find us soon enough."

There's profound connections between these characters I won't reveal here, but the novel weaves questions of identity, time, and the bond between the three couples to the point where the book doesn't always mark where one scene ends and another begins. Early editions were marketed young adult, and yet it's as adult and dense as a Salinger story or Shakespeare.

The novel ends on a heartbreaking note, leaving you in wonder as to what exactly happened, and yet that's exactly the charm and strength of the work - like rich poetry, you need to read it more than once to get all the meaning, and even then there's much beyond your reach. It's a challenging work, and at a scant 120 pages, maintains the tension all the way through.

For readers outside England, here's some pointers on British words: a caravan is a military trailer, nesh is being very sensitive to cold weather or simply lacking courage, a folly is a castle built for decoration, cans are headphones, M6 can be both a highway and a star cluster, M33 is a spiral galaxy, and "Tom's a-cold" is from "King Lear." Also, image searches of Crewe and Mow Cop would give an idea of the setting, and don't read the introduction or the meaning of the coded message until you've finished the book.

To sum up, captivating and cryptic, with realistic, unique characters and situations, all presented with a masterful use of mystery and suspense. Add to that spell-binding dialogue, rich with layer on layer, and it's a work that resonates with you long after.