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annathepiperThe Folk of the Air is my first Peter Beagle book, and I certainly have been remiss in taking this long to get to him. And while I’m given to understand that this is considered to be one of his more flawed works, it’s nonetheless a lovely introduction to what the man can do with the written word.
There’s definite magic for me in this prose. Right out of the gate, I adored that the hero’s Volkswagen van was named Madame Schumann-Heink, that the vehicle was very definitely a “she”, and that she normally couldn’t make it to fifty miles an hour without a tailwind and two days’ advance notice. I loved the casual juxtaposition of a thinly-disguised SCA with actual magic; this made the whole thing play for me as less a fantasy novel per se and almost more as magic realism, which is not a bad thing. And I very much loved that the character Sia, the crux around which the action revolves, is not beautiful or young or even overtly desirable; she is, however, elemental and primal and very compelling. She is a pillar of stone against the sound and fury of young Aiffe and Nicholas Bonner.
In the midst of all of this, protagonist Joe Farrell is almost a nonentity. He’s likable enough, but he doesn’t so much as participate in the action as stumble across it, and he has very few points at which a choice or action of his is necessary to dictate how the plot will flow. As a result he has little character development. Much of what we find out about him as a character is simply because other characters keep telling him he’s like this or like that.
There are those who find the ending quite a bit of a mess. I’m not one of them; I followed the ending well enough. But because of Joe’s relative lack of active participation, I found it difficult to get really invested in what was going on. Also, it didn’t help that there was almost too much quirkiness in many of the side characters. It seemed like pretty much every single minor character was “colorful”, to the degree that after a while I couldn’t help but feel as though I kept getting hit with a barrage of characters going “look how quirky I am! Look how quirky I am! Aren’t I just QUIRKY?”
Still, though, all in all, worth my time. Three stars.
Mirrored from annathepiper.org.
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Date: 2009-10-12 04:17 pm (UTC)my experience with the sca (and academia too) has exactly matched your phrasing of getting hit with a barrage of characters going “look how quirky I am! Look how quirky I am! Aren’t I just QUIRKY?” so i gotta laugh :)
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Date: 2009-10-16 05:19 am (UTC)And, yay for laughing! :)
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Date: 2009-10-17 08:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 07:55 pm (UTC)Sadly, the King County Library doesn't have it in its database, but I can keep an eye out for it nonetheless. Who knows, I could stumble across it at a convention!
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Date: 2009-10-18 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-18 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-19 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-12 07:06 pm (UTC)I didn't realize _Folk of the Air_ was supposed to be one of his more flawed works. If someone asked me to pick those, I would have chosen _Giant Bones,_ _Unicorn Sonata,_ and the script for that animated _Lord of the Rings_ movie from the late 70s or early 80s.
I loved Folk of the Air, though if you asked me for a recommendation on my favorite Peter S. Beagle book, I would've gone with either _Tamsin_ or the perennial favorite _The Last Unicorn._
no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 05:14 am (UTC)I'll have to actually read The Last Unicorn. My friend
I saw passing rumors of Beagle doing a rewrite of Folk of the Air, but I don't know if that's actually coming about. Have you heard anything about it?
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Date: 2009-10-16 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 04:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-10-16 05:14 pm (UTC)I just got the latest edition of Peter S. Beagle's newsletter at the same time that my e-mail notified me of your response, so I forwarded it to your e-mail.
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Date: 2009-10-16 05:15 pm (UTC)Good memory on that man!
Date: 2009-10-18 07:46 am (UTC)A serious final revision to THE FOLK OF THE AIR is going to be done, altering a lot of things, probably adding 40-50 pages, and changing the title to AVICENNA; lesser changes will be made in THE INNKEEPER'S SONG, THE MAGICIAN OF KARAKOSK (aka GIANT BONES), and TAMSIN before they are reprinted; and THE UNICORN SONATA will be entirely replaced by a written-from-scratch-without-looking-at-the-earlier-version four-book series.
Some of this will start coming out next year. Expect the lot to take another 3-4 years, coming out in the background while all the completely new stuff takes center stage.
Basically, we're looking candidly at everything Peter wrote during the 30 years he didn't have the benefit of a good editor, and fixing that which clearly need to be fixed.
Connor Cochran
Re: Good memory on that man!
Date: 2009-10-18 07:51 pm (UTC)Re: Good memory on that man!
Date: 2009-10-19 08:25 am (UTC)Connor