Shoshanapnw's review
Powers
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Shoshanapnw's review
Powers by Ursula K. Le Guin
Shoshanapnw's review
rating:
bookshelves:
2007,
fantasy-science-fiction,
young-adult
The third in the Annals of the Western Shore series following Gifts and Voices. These are ostensibly young adult novels, though Le Guin's work seems to get this label whenever the protagonist is a child or adolescent, regardless of the themes or sophistication of the narrative.
I recently had the opportunity to hear Le Guin read from Powers at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. Before reading the first seven pages, she compared the book to "a jointless chicken" or "baby back ribs" because it lacks structural points that make it easy to start and stop an excerpt. This jointlessness is characteristic of Le Guin's more recent work, which has a deceptive simplicity and clarity of language and story. (She also remarked that she has stories but is not sure that she has plots.) Le Guin's writing often embodies or evokes the Tao (the link is to her translation and commentary). It is subtly complex yet straightforward.
Like the protagonists of the previous books ...more
I recently had the opportunity to hear Le Guin read from Powers at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing. Before reading the first seven pages, she compared the book to "a jointless chicken" or "baby back ribs" because it lacks structural points that make it easy to start and stop an excerpt. This jointlessness is characteristic of Le Guin's more recent work, which has a deceptive simplicity and clarity of language and story. (She also remarked that she has stories but is not sure that she has plots.) Le Guin's writing often embodies or evokes the Tao (the link is to her translation and commentary). It is subtly complex yet straightforward.
Like the protagonists of the previous books ...more
