Walking the Wall

June 2007

1. Finder by Emma Bull. Finished 6/7. I picked this up at a book sale because I was curious if she was comparable to Charles de Lint in the urban myth genre. The concept is that the Borderlands between the faery and human world have physically manifested and created a literal borderland between the two where things are mixed up. While I enjoyed the story and became invested in the characters–I don’t think it was quite de Lint quality, though I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing. Actually, as I write it, I think that what was missing was the old mythologies of both the Celtic and the Native American cultures blending in with de Lint’s writing that gives it a deeper layer. Don’t get me wrong, it was “really good” (as Neil Gaiman notes on the cover), I think it just suffered in comparison. I will definitely be reading her War for the Oaks book that has gotten so much acclaim. One thing she really did well was address the “us” versus “them” mentality, blurring the lines and calling out for tolerance.
2. Days of Cain by J.R. Dunn. Finished 6/17. I had read this book awhile ago but I pulled it out again because I thought it might be a good next book for my summer book club on issues of violence and humanity. Partway into it I realized it would be perfect for that, but then I noticed that it isn’t readily available to buy off Amazon.com or bn.com–frustrating! The premise of the book is “if you had the power, would you eradicate the past’s greatest evil–even if it meant destroying the continuity of history”–would you? It delves into different ways people deal with violence–and the difference between “knowing about” something and “living through” that same something (like the Holocaust). It also addresses what having horrible periods like the Holocaust does in setting images of what it looks like when humanity descends into horrifying cruelty–and those images become stoppers that help prevent society from going back to those depths. It’s a book that raises more questions than it answers, but they are important questions.