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The Green Man (2014)

by Michael Bedard(Favorite Author)

3.56 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1770495118 (ISBN13: 9781770495111)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Tundra Books

review 1: This was a LibraryThing Early Readers book.I started out really enjoying this book. The Green Man, in this book refers to an old, slightly run down bookstore. The book store owner is also old and in need of some help and help comes from her 15 year old niece, who comes to spend the summer with her aunt. I liked the bookstore, the emphasis on poetry and the loneliness of writing poetry and being a poet. If the book is intended for a teen audience, it just won't grab that age. If the book, as I think it is, is meant for a slower more relaxed readership it hits the mark. Elements of mystic, gothic, are there. Story almost jerks forward to the conclusion. The combination of too many weird events and remembrances, as the story is told, made me wish the book had either been one... more emphasizing the start of the story or a book that picked up midway and told a story from that point on.
review 2: In 1987, Bedard published “A Darker Magic,” the prequel to “The Green Man.” In many ways, “The Green Man,” is a reuse of the original novel’s plot. However, “The Green Man,” shows Bedard’s growth as a writer, with a more polished approach, more complicated characters, and more engaging prose enhanced with poetry. It is not necessary to have read the earlier novel to enjoy the new one, but reading both provides an opportunity for comparison and contrast and a chance to see how both heroine’s lives were destined to overlap.Ophelia (who prefers to be called “O”) plans to spend the summer with her eccentric Aunt Emily, poet and owner of The Green Man bookstore. Upon her arrival, it is clear to O that Aunt Emily needs help. Emily is rundown and vague and the shop is in decline. O gradually takes over many of the duties at the bookstore, slowly organizing the stock and revitalizing the displays. She cooks, encouraging Emily to follow a more sensible, healthy diet and give up smoking. O ventures out into the English town, meeting more (memorable) characters and accompanying her aunt to estate sales, where Emily hopes to someday hit pay dirt.Emily is plagued by bad dreams, ill health, and the fear that something terrible will occur on August 8, the anniversary of a childhood trauma. She becomes convinced that O will suffer the same fate as the children who attended a fateful magic show in her youth, and then died. Still, when a local architect’s last relative invites Emily to bid on a rare collection of magic books, Emily is convinced that it will be The Green Man’s salvation. As events unfold, it becomes clear the opportunity could also be the shop’s undoing. Bedard weaves poetry, and the importance of poetry, throughout the plot. O is a blossoming poet. Emily is an established poet whose shop was once a haven for poets. Poetry brings O together with a mysterious young man (also a poet). Together, O and Emily resurrect a poets’ critique and support group. And the shop is haunted by the ghosts of old poets.More time might have been devoted to descriptions of The Green Man (it could qualify as a character of its own in this novel). It would have been interesting to more thoroughly explore O’s poetic growth and know more about Emily’s poetry. However, the atmospheric, slightly cinematic approach will appeal to many readers. Fans of magical realism will want to read this book. less

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