Stardust

I thoroughly enjoyed this fairytale for adults. Fast-paced, witty, and full of the off-beat mystery of the realm of faerie, Stardust appealed to me in the same way Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell did. It’s no wonder Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman are friends. How I’d love to hear one of their conversations about their art.

This tale begins in Victorian England, in the village of Wall, so named for the wall that marks the boundary between the town and the enchanted lands. There is one opening in the wall, guarded at all times to protect the village children (or anyone else, for that matter) from wandering through and getting lost in the dreamlike lands beyond. But for reasons explained early on, Tristran Thorn ventures in after a fallen star, and finds himself involved in an adventure intertwined with two other stories. The account of his escapades beyond the wall and their ultimate resolution makes for entertaining, gripping reading.

It’s not surprising that Stardust reminded me of Susanna Clarke, for one of her short stories in The Ladies of Grace Adieu is a response to this one. By turns I was reminded of other authors and characters, too: the enchanted woods of Phantastes and The Hobbit, the stars dropping from the sky in The Last Battle, the animal nature within people in The Princess and Curdie, the by-all-accounts commonplace figure who pursues a grand destiny in Lord of the Rings. And so on. As his poem “Instructions” makes plain, this is an author well-versed in the conventions of the fairytale, using them inventively to further his own story.

When I come to the end of a tale like this, I marvel at the imaginative reach and the superb writing. I started American Gods earlier this year and didn’t like it, but this one I couldn’t put down and even left the lounge during my one free period at homeschool co-op on Friday to seek out a quiet place to read. (I ended up in the deserted baby nursery, nervous that someone would stumble upon me and think I was utterly weird and antisocial, but reading on, helplessly.) Stardust is my first real acquaintance with Neil Gaiman’s fiction, but I suspect it won’t be my last.