The Onion Girl (Newford) (Hardcover)

~ Charles de Lint (Author) "I don't know what makes me turn..." (more)
Key Phrases: faerie paintings, onion girl, faerie blood, Broken Girl, Charles de Lint, Miss Lucinda (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Life is truly an act of magic in Canadian author de Lint's triumphant return to Newford, his fictitious North American city, with its fascinating blend of urban faerie and dreamworld adventures. When Jilly Coppercorn becomes a victim of a hit-and-run driver, her happy life as a popular Newford artist comes to a screeching halt. Half of her body, including her painting hand, no longer works properly, and the prospect of a long recovery, despite supportive friends, depresses her. Her dreams - the only escape she enjoys - connect her to friend Sophie's dreamland of Mabon. Another friend, of otherworldly origin, Joe Crazy Dog, calls it manido-aki, a place where magic dwells amid mythic creatures and e-landscapes far away from the World As It Is. Joe also knows that's where Jilly must heal what has broken inside herself to speed recovery of her physical body. Complications ensue when her friends discover that someone broke into the artist's apartment after the accident and destroyed her famous faerie paintings. De Lint introduces yet another intriguing character, the raunchy, wild and furious Raylene, as dark as Jilly is light, who deepens the mystery. Is she Jilly's shadow self, or a connection to a past Jilly would rather forget? This crazy-quilt fantasy moves from the outer to the inner world with amazing ease and should satisfy new and old fans of this prolific and gifted storyteller, whose ability to peel away layers of story could earn him the title "The Onion Man." (Nov. 1).
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jilly Coppercorn, a talented painter whose works reveal the hidden life of the magical Canadian town of Newford, lies in a hospital, the victim of an apparent car accident. As her friends gather around her, Jilly's own story comes to the fore, filled with the mysteries and secrets she has hidden from herself as well as from others. Continuing his series of novels set in a modern world that borders on a dimension of myth and legend, de Lint (Moonheart) highlights the life of one of his most popular characters. A master storyteller, he blends Celtic, Native American, and other cultures into a seamless mythology that resonates with magic and truth. A good selection for most fantasy collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 356 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (October 19, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312873972
• ISBN-13: 978-0312873974
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #115,129 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Heavy-handed with a dash of "been there, done that", December 19, 2001

By	"babyfacefinster" (Woodstock, GA United States) - See all my reviews

After I finished "The Onion Girl" last night, I sat there feeling vaguely dissatisfied and tried to figure out why. I think it all comes down to what some other reviewers have pointed out: we've seen this before - numerous times and handled better than this.

DeLint's earlier books had a sense of wonder and delicacy both in his writing and in his portrayals of characters and Dreamlands/Otherlands. As you read, it felt as if the magical place he was talking about was not only real but that it could be fragile as well; it *was* real but only as long as you believed and DeLint was very good at making us believe. With this book, however, I didn't feel drawn in - more like bludgeoned. It reads along the lines of "You will believe in Newford and in the Dreamlands because I say so."

Characters in this book are not there so much to show as to tell which tends to rob the book of much of its possible emotion. We're told how wonderful Jilly is, we're told how much her friends are frightened for her or pulling for her to get better, but we're never shown it. We're surrounded by all these people who have supposedly pulled themselves up by their bootstraps or dealt with hard things in life but everyone reads the same regardless of their prior experiences. Wendy, positioned as a character with a normal (read: non-abusive) childhood, comes across no differently than Jilly or Sophie. We're told she has a hard time relating to the childhood Jilly experienced but it comes across like a line in a script read by an extremely poor actress. There is nothing to back up what we're being told to feel. Everyone is the same flat character with different names.

Raylene's "transformation" rings hollow. Her motivation in this story has essentially been payback. She's face to face with the person, has the means and the method, and she suddenly decides not to? And in such a way that intimates some noble self-sacrifice when, all through the book, we're given example after example about how she's out for what she can get for herself? There is nothing that points to this completely unbelievable change of heart except perhaps DeLint wanted a happy (or happier) ending after "Forests of the Heart".

The Newford books seem to be becoming more about DeLint's personal likes/dislikes/agenda than him setting the characters down and letting them tell the story. We're treated to page after page of a character or characters wandering around in Native American or Celtic myths/stories/dreamlands and these scenes read as a too-long "Let me show all the things I know about this culture" rather than as vital to the story. In addition, although normally I like seeing the little snippets regarding music and musicians in his book, there is one paragraph regarding a band that comes in completely from left field and seems designed simply to advertise friends of DeLint's and nothing more.

Overall, I felt the book fell flat on its face with its themes. What could have been an exploration of the meaning of family, how/if the events of the past color the future, child abuse, et cetera, were drowned out by DeLint and his Anvil Chorus. Between the coy phrasing of abuse victims as "Children of the Secret" and Jilly's apparent canonization, there is nothing real about this book or Jilly's and Raylene's experiences to hang onto. Instead, we're treated to a really long hurt/comfort fanfic.

At one point, a character says something to the effect of "children are our most precious resource". While true, it reads as the author needing to make sure we get that point and providing it via anvilicious methods. We. Get. It. Charles.

Will I read another DeLint book? Possibly - I'll at least give him one more chance. However, I definitely won't be buying it in hardback. I'll content myself with my copies of "Jack of Kinrowan" and "Trader" until his next book comes out in paperback. If his next book is the same as "The Onion Girl", I''ll sadly clear his books off my shelf and go in search of a new author who can make me feel the way DeLint used to.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars De Lint's Onion Girl, January 10, 2002

By	"danamages" (White Bear Lake, MN United States) - See all my reviews

In the Onion Girl, De Lint fans will find his usual superb writing and his interesting take on mythologies and urban fantasies; however, as a De Lint fan, be prepared to have the veil removed regarding the always cheerful, favorite character, Jilly.

New readers for De Lint are better off starting with books like Moonheart or The Little Country--they are a little more lighthearted and more descriptive of both De Lint's urban Newford and his spirit world. The Onion Girl is darker and relies more on past Newford characters and their experiences 'crossing over' into fantasy as well as their experiences with the spirits in our world.

As a longtime De Lint fan, this book is as enjoyable as always.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Urban fantasy at its magical best, November 25, 2001

By	Jason E. Lundberg "Writer, reviewer, podcaster" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Here is another fantastic novel by the master of the urban fantasy. This one is about Jilly Coppercorn, a painter who seems to peek her head in on most of de Lint's stories, whether they are short stories or novels. De Lint sets a majority of his tales in the North American city of Newford, and whether Jilly has a small or large part in the story, she is at Newford's heart; all the characters seem to have been affected by Jilly's kindness, charm and buoyant good nature. Jilly is the Onion Girl, however, and we see a much darker part of her than ever imagined before. This book is about the past, and how it can come snapping back to us, teeth blazing, when we least expect. This is one of those Chihuahua-smooshing burglar-stunning kinds of books, but it reads as fast as a 250 page-sized version. As usual, there is magic, and creatures far older than you or I, who were old when the world was created. But the thing I admire the most about de Lint's fiction, and this book is no different, are his characters. They are the ones who help out at soup kitchens and take in stray cats and bring people in off the street. These are people who have seen hard times themselves and go out of their way to help others. It is the simple fact that these people are good, in the purest sense of the word. And at the end of the novel, I truly wished Jilly was a real person that I could phone up and tell exactly how much I admire and love.