Medicine Road (Hardcover)

by Charles De Lint (Author), Charles Vess (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Canadian author De Lint and illustrator Vess make good medicine in this whimsical collaboration of words and images starring those rambunctious red-haired Dillard twins, Laurel and Bess, mentioned in 2002's Seven Wild Sisters and now stage center in their own short novel. Musicians Bess and Laurel have exchanged the green Northeast for the desert Southwest for their first road tour, playing their rockabilly music and having fun. Enter two unhappy Native American spirits, Jim Changing Dog and Alice Corn Hair, who've been charged by Coyote Woman to find soul mates in two weeks or lose their ability to shift into their cherished "five-fingered" human form. Soon the two sisters become key players in an unfolding melodrama involving the true love quest. Alice has already found her mate in Thomas, an aging artist, but Jim, a roving red-haired rascal, is uncertain he can ever fall in love until he tumbles for Bess after the twins' Tucson performance. When he begins to woo her, complications threaten to doom poor Jim to life as a red dog. Laurel then decides to awaken her animal self in order to help Bess learn the value of "connecting with the animal spirits inside." The mythic magic inevitable in all of De Lint's best fantasies marks the spirited conclusion.
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From Booklist
Coyote Woman gives a red dog and a jackalope the chance to enrich their lives by enabling them to assume human shape. They have 100 years to find mates who love them unconditionally, or neither gets to keep the gift. Although Alice Corn Hair has found her true love, Jim Changing Dog hasn't been able to commit to one woman, and there's less than a month left for him to find his soul mate. Enter twins Laurel and Bess Dillard, two of de Lint's Seven Wild Sisters (2002), who are touring the Southwest playing old-timey music and selling CDs. In Tucson they meet Jim, who falls for Bess. De Lint adroitly and believably meshes the world we live in and the spirit world, and his lyrical descriptions of desert and canyon take us directly into the ambience of the Southwest, adding much to the charm of this first-in-a-series short novel that is already well laced with humor, romance, and Native American mythology and nicely complemented by World Fantasy Award-winner Charles Vess' black-and-white illustrations. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 206 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean Press; First Edition edition (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931081964
• ISBN-13: 978-1931081962
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #499,181 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Excellent Story!, September 3, 2005

By	mayfayre "mayfayre" (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

This isn't a big book - only 206 pages in the hardcover edition - but that doesn't matter at all. This is one of those stories that just grabs you from the start and sucks you right into the mythological world that Charles de Lint creates so well. It's not an action-packed book, nothing like that. Instead it follows the interactions of about seven individuals over the course of a few days. He makes the interactions between the "real" people and the people of myth totally believable. I never find myself saying, "Oh, how can that be?". Nope, I just go along happily for the ride.

After reading this book, I want to go and actually see the deserts of the Southwest. I want to learn more about the mythology of the region. That is one of the secrets to de Lint's writing, I think - it's very easy to visualize the settings, to become intrigued by the mysteries surrounding the characters. To want more.

I enjoyed the nod he gave to Terri Windling, and I would second the recommendation another reviewer gave about Windling's "The Wood Wife" - it's another excellent book. For those of you who may have read de Lint's "Forests of the Heart", there's a brief appearance of Bettina and one of her uncles in this book, which was a pleasant surprise.

Read this book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Medicine Road is good medicine, January 1, 2005

By	Linda S. Brundies "Voracious reader" (Iowa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Medicine Road is what I've come to expect from De Lint. Wonder-full! Bess and Laurel Dillard are back. We first met them in Seven Wild Sisters. This time they are in Arizona giving concerts at local establishments. They fall or leap into a magical adventure depending on which sister's version you happen to be reading. Each sister has her own way of relating to magic and the everyday world and it colors their respective response to it. Each sister grows and changes in the "same but different" way of twins. This duality is paralleled by the characters Alice and Jim, formerly jack rabbit and coyote. They grow and change as they interact with the twins and play out their own stories. De Lint's story is reminiscent of Terri Windling's The Wood Wife, which you should check out as well. But De Lint's magic is all his own. Read this and all of his other work. You won't be disappointed.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delint Book? Why look any further?, March 14, 2005

By	A. Sides "Eternal Student" (Augusta,GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Almost every De Lint book I have read has sucked me in instantly. All of his books are great but the Newford Series are my absolute favs. I would sugest starting with one of them, then getting into his other books. His horor novels are just that, the mental aspect will have you lieing awake at night.

I would sugest reading Forests of the Heart first before this novel, but you do not have to. All delint books stand on their own.