Weetzie sure ain't Sure of You
Jul. 7th, 2005 08:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiAfter the hullabaloo last month in trying to get my copy of Necklace of Kisses, I finally got an email last Thursday from a nice lady at HarperCollins, apologizing for the mess, and letting me know that they had another ARC lying around. They sent it to me, and it arrived on Tuesday. I finished it yesterday afternoon.
It was, in a word, wonderful.
My biggest fear, after reading the plot blurb (that Weetzie decides to leave Max after twenty years -- sorry, not calling a blurb on the cover and anything that happens by page 3 a spoiler), was that this would turn into Block's Sure of You.
SoY, for those who haven't read it, is the final book in Maupin's Tales of the City series, and basically turns the character of Mary Ann, who started as a wide-eyed innocent in the first book, into a completely unsympathetic character, disolving her wonderful relationship with her husband, Brian, and basically ending the series with them starting their lives over. It's not a bad book, per se, but it's an amazingly cynical end to a series that started off so full of joie de vivre.
So, going into NoK, I was a wee bit worried, as this was another great series that began with an amazingly positive outlook on life. And although I could handle Maupin going down that route (given the lack of true magic in his books, as well as an element of satire that Block has avoided), I don't think I would have been able to see Weetzie take that path.
But Block's a better writer than that (she's also a better writer than when the series began), and the book is just a joy. It's got all the classic Block elements, from the magical realism buried right under (and often creeping out from) all the characters' backgrounds to the oh-so-rare (in literature) willingness of people to admit that they don't understand what's driving their actions at all times. Throw in a book that clearly shows that Weetzie and friends (and we get glimpses into the entire crew at times, enough to keep fans of the older books happy without requiring newbies to have read them) are living in the 21st Century, and have aged, for both good and ill, and you've got a superb continuation (possibly coda?) to the series.
Highly recommended.
It was, in a word, wonderful.
My biggest fear, after reading the plot blurb (that Weetzie decides to leave Max after twenty years -- sorry, not calling a blurb on the cover and anything that happens by page 3 a spoiler), was that this would turn into Block's Sure of You.
SoY, for those who haven't read it, is the final book in Maupin's Tales of the City series, and basically turns the character of Mary Ann, who started as a wide-eyed innocent in the first book, into a completely unsympathetic character, disolving her wonderful relationship with her husband, Brian, and basically ending the series with them starting their lives over. It's not a bad book, per se, but it's an amazingly cynical end to a series that started off so full of joie de vivre.
So, going into NoK, I was a wee bit worried, as this was another great series that began with an amazingly positive outlook on life. And although I could handle Maupin going down that route (given the lack of true magic in his books, as well as an element of satire that Block has avoided), I don't think I would have been able to see Weetzie take that path.
But Block's a better writer than that (she's also a better writer than when the series began), and the book is just a joy. It's got all the classic Block elements, from the magical realism buried right under (and often creeping out from) all the characters' backgrounds to the oh-so-rare (in literature) willingness of people to admit that they don't understand what's driving their actions at all times. Throw in a book that clearly shows that Weetzie and friends (and we get glimpses into the entire crew at times, enough to keep fans of the older books happy without requiring newbies to have read them) are living in the 21st Century, and have aged, for both good and ill, and you've got a superb continuation (possibly coda?) to the series.
Highly recommended.