Holy cats. Seriously, I don’t really know how else to begin. I’ve been reading a Charles de Lint book a month for almost half a year, waiting to be truly wowed, and so far the books have been pretty great, fun, experimental with fantasy tropes, and in the case of Mulengro (1985) a really neat blend of fantasy and thriller. Overall I was enjoying myself but I still hadn’t really been blown away by any of his books.
Then I hit Yarrow: An Autumn tale (1986) and everything changed. The novel focuses on a Canadian fantasy author named Cat Midhir, who is currently suffering from a bout of writer’s block. It turns out Cat has been using her dreams as inspiration for her work throughout her career, but now something has changed, something dangerous. I really don’t want to spoil the story even though it is now 28-years-old. What I will say is the story balances quite well between thriller and fantasy, and deals with questions of perception and reality as well, not to mention adding both a little comedy and a little eroticism into the mix as well.
With this book I can say that yes, I’m in it for the long haul and will be reading a De Lint book a month until I catch up (luckily, that is a lot of material before I have to slow down). Although I’ve never been to Ottawa (living in Edmonton), Mr. De Lint’s works make me wish I could travel to his Ottawa, a world of magic and wonder, with a feeling of danger beneath the surface.
My Charles de Lint book for June was actually a little bit of a departure from the first three; although I would still consider Mulengro: A Romany Tale a fantasy novel, it was much darker in tone than his previous books, almost moving in thriller territory in some scenes. The book follows a series of murders involving Gypsy (Romany) culture, and moves in and out of a look at the subculture itself and then the more magical aspects as well.
Like his previous book Moonheart, Mulengro has an ensemble of characters rather than one protagonist, and at this point I found all of the characters quite engaging and interesting. Adding to that the darker elements of the story and it could almost be considered dark fantasy (one of my favourite sub-genres of both Horror and Fantasy), so the book definitely worked for me.
Well worth the read, and I finally feel that I’m getting into the rhythm of his writing style, really glad I decided to give his works a try.
