Todd Klein's Blog, page 16

Rereading: BEYOND SILENCE by Eleanor Cameron

Cover illustration by Michael Heslop

Cameron began writing The Mushroom Planet series for her son in the 1950s, but she continued to grow as a writer, and by 1980, the time of this book, her work was deep, thoughtful, and complex while also being accessible and appealing.

Andy’s life in California has been deeply troubled since the death of his older brother Hoagy, which happened when they were on a trip together. Before the accident, Hoagy had served in Vietnam, coming back injured, and that and his death also drove a wedge between Andy’s parents. To get away from things, Andy’s father Alex is taking him on a trip to Scotland to visit his family’s ancestral home, which is now being run as a hotel by Jim and Beth McBride. Alex is excited to revisit the scenes of his childhood, and Andy is looking forward to hiking and exploring the area. When they arrive, and are being taken up to their room, Andy has a strange psychic experience where he hears the voice of a young girl when there’s definitely no one else there. This is the first of several such moments, some of which come with visions as well as sounds, and an old letter from the early 1900s gives Andy some clues to what he’s experiencing, but also leaves many questions unanswered, which he spends the trip trying to figure out. Another guest, Scotsman Phineas Brock, is soon pushing his company on both Alex and Andy, and seems intent on finding out everything about the strange things Andy is going through, even though Andy takes an instant dislike to him. Over the course of a few weeks, Andy’s visions grow darker, and seem somehow linked to the death of his brother. Can anyone help him figure things out, and get Mr. Brock off his back?

Excellent writing and characters, recommended.

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My Music: NEVER LEARN

This was a “note to self” song, but I did share it with friends and family when I put some of my songs on a CD in 2000. Like many, it was recorded in my living room around 1978. The song: Never Learn.

The structure is A A B A A, where B is completely different but not repeated, so you can’t really consider it a chorus. I was getting more creative with structure. I also like the way I wrote it out in my notebook, with “I’m” at the end of the B Part, though it’s really the beginning of the A part following.

The other thing to notice is that I wrote three songs in the period from July 4 to July 15. I don’t think I was ever that prolific again. Guess I didn’t have much else to do at the time but sit in my room over the garage in Pluckemin trying things out on the guitar.

Never Learn is © Todd Klein.

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Rereading: FIGURES OF EARTH by James Branch Cabell

This was the first Cabell book I read, but not this wonderfully illustrated hardcover, instead the 1969 paperback from Ballantine Books, an early entry in their Adult Fantasy line. It had a few of the simpler Papé illustrations, but none of the tipped-in plates as seen above. This is the 1925 illustrated reprint of the 1921 first edition.

The book has a preface by Cabell about how pleased he is with the illustrations, which I enjoyed, and a foreword full of flowery, vocabulary challenging language similar to his “Beyond Life,” but once the actual book begins, the prose is much more to my liking: spare, clever, convincingly medieval without being too flowery in most cases. The skill of the writing is evidenced by the fact that my opinion of the main character kept changing throughout the book.

We first see Manuel as a young serf working as a swineherd by a pool of water in Haranton. He’s large, muscular, and handsome, though his expression has a permanent squint, and he keeps his emotions well hidden. One day a stranger offers him a fine sword and a quest to rescue a maiden from a sorcerer living atop a nearby mountain. Manuel accepts the quest, though he has no experience with quests, swords, or sorcerers. On the way up the mountain he’s joined by Niafer, also on the same quest, and Manuel observes Niafer’s skill in getting by all the sorcerer’s defenses through the use of simple tricks. He also observes that Niafer is pretty young woman in disguise.

Atop the mountain, the pair learn that the maiden, who Miramon the sorcerer has married, has quite taken him in hand, and is in no need of rescuing. But Manuel and Niafer discover they’ve fallen in love, and depart down the mountain to get married themselves. At the base, they meet Death on his black steed, as Miramon suggested they might, and Death tells them one of the two must ride with him on his second white horse to his land, never to return. Manuel, despite his love for Niafer, takes the very practical view that he himself must go on to the glorious destiny he imagines, and Niafer must ride with Death. Niafer agrees, and so Manuel loses the first of several loves of his life, though later in the story he is able to reclaim her.

Using the kind of tricks Niafer taught him, Manuel goes on to that fame and fortune he feels he deserves, but there are always prices to pay and compromises along the way. The book follows him through a fairly short life of about 25 years, and many adventures, both in the real world and among fantastic beings and monsters. Manuel marries twice, and also follows a compulsion to be a sculptor of “figures of earth.” He eventually gains an undeserved reputation as a hero, riches, and a hard-won kingdom, but none of his successes seem to satisfy him. At last, only his children are able to bring him comfort.

This is a fascinating book, giving the reader a lot to think about. It has a gentle humor throughout, but plenty of emotion as well, and a plot that’s unpredictable. Recommended.

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Rereading: NOTHING SAID by L. M. Boston

Another short book by Boston that seems longer because it’s so rich with detail, incident, fine characters, and hints of magic. Libby has gone to stay with her mother’s friend Julia in Julia’s old house by the edge of a stream called The Babble, as it runs noisily over stones and pebbles. Julia’s dog Cobweb is always ready for a walk and an adventure, and he and Libby have some along the river path. In the evenings, Julia tells enchanting stories about water sprites and dryads until Libby begins to believe she sees them in the stream and trees. Then there are days of rain, and the stream floods the countryside, including the yard of Julia’s house, making for more adventures. When they can get out, they drive up into the hills to see the thundering waterfalls enlarged by the rain. Libby loves this place, and hates the thought she will have to go home soon.

Beautifully written, and the illustrations by Peter Boston are particularly good. Recommended.

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My Music: SOMEONE KNOCKS

A few days after “If Wishes Were,” I wrote this song, dated July 11, 1971. I think it was a reaction to hearing from Karen, my summer romance of the year before who had decided to avoid me when I followed her to Kansas City. I might have received a letter from her, or gotten a message through mutual friend Mike, I don’t recall, but my reaction is clear: it was over for me, and I didn’t want her back. In this tune I experimented with different tempos for the verse and chorus, which I think works well. Here’s the song, recorded around 1978: Someone Knocks.

This is me at a friend’s house, my family didn’t have a piano. It looks like I know what I’m doing, but in fact I never learned to read music well enough to play it on the piano, or to really play the instrument, I just liked to noodle around and could pick out melodies and sometimes simple harmonies. I have no recordings of me at a keyboard until decades later. This photo is from July, 1971, the same time as the song.

While I was not interested in hearing from Karen that summer, when I went back to Kansas City the following January, we did renew our relationship for a few months, as recounted earlier in these posts. I broke it off when I ran out of money and came back to New Jersey around June 1972, and I lost touch with Karen then. I hope she had a good life.

Someone Knocks is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE SCARECROW OF OZ by L. Frank Baum

Cover and illustrations by John R. Neill

As with some previous Oz books by Baum, the ninth one doesn’t focus on the title character, and he only appears in the final third, but when he does, he’s as charming and cheerful as ever.

The story begins in our world with Cap’n Bill and Trot, who are having a boat ride when they’re caught in a whirlpool and carried to the bottom of the ocean. There they are swept into a deep cave along with a strange magical creature, the Ork, who becomes a friend. The Ork has a propeller tail and four small wings, but there’s nowhere to fly in the cavern. The three escape through a tunnel, and after a long journey emerge on a small island, where the only inhabitant is a rude, cranky old man who has been left there by his neighbors because he can’t get along with anyone. The man is anxious to get rid of them, and shows them how to escape by shrinking Trot and Cap’n Bill so that the Ork can fly them across the ocean to a new land. When they do that, they find they’re in Jinxland, a small section of Oz separated by tall mountains and a deep chasm. The country is ruled by King Krewl, and he is. The rest of the book takes place mostly in Jinxland as the three emigrants try to help new friends and escape the punishments of the king and his wicked witch. When the Scarecrow arrives to help, sent by Glinda, he at first is in just as much trouble as they are.

A fun read, interesting characters, though the punny names for some are a bit tiresome. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE UNICORN SONATA by Peter S. Beagle

Beagle’s best known and well-loved book is “The Last Unicorn” of 1968, and from the acknowledgements it seems like this 1996 novel was commissioned by Turner Publishing’s Janet Berliner because she wanted another unicorn book from him. It’s a fine read.

Josephine “Joey” Rivera is thirteen, and living in Los Angeles with her family, but spends a lot of time at the music instrument shop of elderly John Papas, helping out where she can. One day a handsome boy, Indigo, shows up with an unusual horn he wants to sell. On it he plays some haunting, enchanting music that thrills both Joey and Mr. Papas, but Indigo will only take gold for the horn, and Mr. Papas doesn’t have enough. Of all her family, Joey thinks her grandmother, Abuelita, would understand her feelings about the music and the boy best, but she has a hard time talking about it. Then one night she hears the same music coming from somewhere nearby. She slips out of the house, follows the sound, and somehow crosses a border to a magical land, Shei’rah, where beautiful countryside and forests are alive with unicorns, satyrs, water nymphs, and many other amazing beings, some friendly, some dangerous. Her first friend is the satyr Ko, but she soon is also befriended by some of the unicorns. The music seems to somehow come from them, and as Joey learns about this strange land, she discovers that the unicorns are afflicted with an illness that is making them go blind. She wants to help, but what can she do? Indigo, who she meets again in Shei-rah, might have some answers if he would ever talk to her about it. In several visits back and forth across the border, Joey comes up with a new plan to bring her grandmother Abuelita to the place, and when she does, even stranger things begin to happen.

I enjoyed this, despite remembering nothing about it. The painted illustrations by Robert Rodriguez are fine, but the real magic is in the writing and characters. Recommended.

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Rereading: PROBLEM PARTY by M. E. Atkinson

Cover and illustrations by Stuart Tresilian

The tenth book in Atkinson’s holiday adventure series about the Lockett family and their friends is unusually complex, as it gathers many of the characters from the previous nine books to an elaborate house party over the Christmas holidays.

It begins with Evelyn Standish, the girl met in “The Monster of Widgeon Weir” who wears leg irons or braces to help her walk, and who can’t do many of the things her sister Brenda does, though her wealthy family and attentive servants help her a lot. Evelyn is a big fan of the Locketts, and knows their books well, so she was thrilled to meet them the previous summer on the Thames, when they were camping there (in “The Monster of Widgeon Weir”), and Evelyn was able to be a small part of that adventure. Now she has a plan: to gather as many people from the books as possible, including the Locketts, for an after-Christmas party in London. Her mother and sister are willing to help, and invitations go out, but soon after, Brenda comes down with scarlet fever, making the London party impossible. All Evelyn’s plans are dashed, but then her mother agrees to open up their country mansion for the party, and things are going ahead again. New invitations are sent out, and many are accepted.

Once at the country house, which is large and impressive, we finally get to see the children interacting and doing games and sports together, but the main focus soon turns to Nina, one of the older children, who has found an expensive pearl necklace in her room and decides to wear it to the costume ball. Later, the necklace disappears. Has it been stolen? Would-be detective Terry is soon on the case, which turns out to have many twists and turns, and a number of suspects.

There are too many characters in the book for all of them to get equal time, and in fact the Locketts, and even their frenemy Fenella are almost pushed to the background at times by the mystery of the missing necklace, but it’s a fun read all the same. Recommended.

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My Music: IF WISHES WERE

Yes, that’s me, September 1971

This is the first song for which I have a written composition date in my notebooks, it’s July 4th, 1971. At that time I was recently back from my first stay in Kansas City, working at a summer job at Freight Traffic Services in Far Hills, NJ, co-owned by the father of my friend Randy, who also worked there, and who took this photo on the grounds of the old school building where we worked. As you can see, I was letting my freak flag fly, as David Crosby put it. Here’s the song: If Wishes Were.

There was a gang of friends who I hung out with, and one was the younger sister of a high school pal. She and I talked about lots of things, including our love lives, and this song was written about her, or what I would have said to her if I ever had the nerve, which I didn’t. I don’t think I ever played it for anyone, it was kind of for myself, so you’re among the first to hear it. It’s funny to me now that I write as if I’m an expert on love after having one romance that didn’t work out so well. Who did I think I was, anyway? That’s probably why I kept this song quiet, but I still kind of like it. And I was finally starting to express my feelings more, which I think makes for better songs.

By this time I had my new Conn classical style guitar, which I loved, and it’s still my only acoustic guitar. I play it almost daily, this photo is recent. It’s a musical partnership that’s lasted over 50 years. Like many of the songs I’m sharing, this was recorded in my living room in Highland Park, NJ around 1978.

If Wishes Were is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION REVOLTS by Walter Farley

Cover and illustrations by Harold Eldridge

By the ninth book of this series, author Farley was casting around for a new approach, and he found it here by sending Alec Ramsey AND his famous wild stallion The Black out west. Many writers might have begun simply with that premise, but Farley ups the odds by having their private plane crash in the Utah wilderness. Both Alec and The Black are thrown from the plane. Alec has a bad concussion and has lost his memory. Wandering in the woods, he finds a truck stopped on a road changing a tire, and he is just able to climb inside, where he collapses. He wakes up in a different state, and is soon trying to walk through an Arizona desert, where he’s found by a local man and brought to his home in the mountains.

Meanwhile, The Black has also wandered off from the crash, but his wild nature soon has him adapting to the land around him. He makes his way south to Arizona, and gathers a small harem of mares by fighting their stallions, or stealing them from ranches. He’s worse for the wear, but able to survive and even thrive.

Alec’s amnesia continues, but some newspaper reports suggest he might have been part of a robbery in Salt Lake City that went wrong, or at least he fits the description of the young man being sought. Since he can’t remember, Alec doesn’t know if that’s true or not. He comes to work for Allen, a local rancher who raises cattle and quarter-horses, and one day he’s put on the trail of a wild stallion in the hills. As you can guess, it’s The Black, but can Alec save the horse he somehow recognizes, and who knows him, from being shot by the ranchers as a horse poacher?

Great read, even if the ending isn’t in much doubt, and yes, there’s a big race too. Recommended.

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