my review of Sean Stewart’s Mockingbird
So I started this blog in late March, mainly for the purpose of reviewing books. I read a lot of books, so the logical thing to do is to review them when I’m done, instead of letting the opinions I have for what I read molder away, forgotten, in some back closet of my brain.
I thought it a slightly negative omen, then, that since I’ve started this blog I haven’t read one book that I was eminently blown away by. The makers came close, but as I discussed in my review, a certain… Weirdness about doctoros world stopped that from being completely five star. Or maybe it didn’t, I’m too lazy to check.
But anyway, without further adue, I present my review of Mockingbird, by Sean Stewart, the best book I’ve read since march.
This book is absolutely fucking brilliant. Go read it. That should be all I need to say, but I’ll elaborate.
Before reading Mockingbird, I’d heard of Sean Stewart. The people at the New York Times book review love him, so I avoided him. I’m sorry, but any work of fiction the New York times deems good I approach with a lot of caution unless I can get a backup recommendation from a newspaper or magazine which doesn’t force its reviewers to review with something shoved firmly up there ass..
This one time, however, the Times was dead on. Everything about this book was amazing.
A brief plot summary. Toni’s mother dies. Toney’s sister, candy, acting on instructions given from her mother’s deathbed, tricks Toni into drinking spiked wine which results in Toni becoming a conduit for little gods, or spirits. There are six spirits that take Toni over from time to time, against her will and with no warning.
Each spirit represents a different aspect of life. The preacher is about austerity, Copper is about money and winning, Sugar is about sex and flirting.
Now, if this sounds trite, or stupid, I’ve described it poorly. It is neither of these things.
The fact that life can be magical at times is calmly excepted by most main characters. The major characters of the novel except that life has a little magic in it with no real complaint. Candy’s boyfriend is a sorcerer, and at only a few places in the text is this mentioned as atypical. The spirits which possessed Toni’s mother, and then possess Toni, are treated by the family as normal events to be dealt with, the same way you might treat a family member with epilepsy. I hesitate to use the term magical realism to describe this attitude, because I feel people who say magical realism are saying it because they’d prefer not to say fantasy.
But the fact that the main character is possessed by spirits is known by everyone in the book, and no one, outside of characters that are mentioned but do not appear, disbelieves this or expresses confusion about it.
The book is written in such wonderful language even if my description has done nothing for you you need to pick this book up for the prose alone. Every sentence is polished, there isn’t a word out of place. And if there is, its just that, a word. No sloppy constructions or bland paragraphs which neither the writer and the reader have much interest in. Stewart’s prose sings with life. most of the Metaphors come across as refreshing and unique without sounding forced. The dialogue is realistic, the descriptions of Texas in the summer are so vivid I felt like I was there. The book is written in the first person. Unlike many books written in this style, however, I never felt that the narator was a standin for the author, or a slightly alttered version of him. Every paragraph and thought Toni has feels like her own. The voice the novel is written in is spot on and never wavers. Stewart might have flaws as a writer, but his prose is not at all, in any way, one of these flaws.
Stewart blends the fantasy elements and normal concerns of an every day life together easily and naturally, one day Toni is in the mall when she gets possessed by Sugar, the spirit representing sex. She comes home wearing a skirt that’s cut off at the thighs, and she may or may not have fooled around with a Victoria’s Secret salesclerk. Toni’s embarrassed, Candy is amused and concerned, life goes on. The next day, she’s trying to scrape together money to help a neighbor get her roof fixed and no spirits appear at all.
This is beautifully done, and that’s one of the strengths of Mockingbirds many strengths. Stewart takes a situation which in a bad author’s hands would feel fake and he makes it real, real in a pedestrian but still marvelous way.
The book has a plot, but its weak. Nothing much happens, Toni’s life isn’t extraordinary in any way but having spirits possess her from time to time. The world is not in danger, nor is anyone she loves. But that doesn’t matter. The things that do happen kept me hooked, I finished this in a day.
One last commendation for this book and for Stewart as an author. He’s gutsy in what he chooses to do. Of course men write women protagonists and women write male protagonists. A lot of authors do this well, I wrongly assumed Robin Hobb was male, but I’ve never seen anyone do this as well as Stewart has! He writes a female who sounds so female, not in an overstated way, but just in a really authentic way, I would believe it if he’d spent a year in drag to teach himself how to write a female protagonist. This seems like a miner issue, but its just one more thing I loved about this book.
I’m not easy to please. I loved this book. Go buy it, right now. If you can’t buy it, steal it. But get a copy.
Five out of five stars!
Sean Stewart’s web site.
Pages & Rages 