Mink River by Brian Doyle

[bluewillowtree]

When I started reading Mink River, my first thought was Oh, God, Brian Doyle is one of those writers who thinks he's too artistic for punctuation. I'm the first to admit that I'm a grammar snob, but I generally can't stand that style of writing, particularly the lack of quotation marks for dialogue. I don't find it edgy or unique, just frustrating

Comments

[hope_tang]

Do not get me started on magical realism. I had to read One Hundred Years of Solitude and The House of Spirits for English class. Be prepared for death, violence, questionable lust for family members, screwed up family dynamics, random acts of magic and religion, and general "and this is which Juan of fifteen Juans?"

Um, they weren't exactly my favorite books in high school...

[bluewillowtree]

I'm not entirely sure magical realism necessarily is what I think it is? Is it a story that's set in the real world but has elements that couldn't actually happen in real life, only without being fantasy? That's what I meant about this story. Like the crow who not only learned to speak, but could converse with humans and understand and process everything they said. Also, there's a bear who rescues a kid after a bad fall by carrying him back to his family.

I got the first volume of Gabriel Garcia Marquez' autobiography as a gift a few years back, from a relative who probably assumed I'd read any of his novels. I read maybe a third of the autobiography before deciding that so much referred to his writing that I wasn't getting nearly as much out of the story as I would if I did read his work. I've been meaning to ever since, but haven't gotten around to it. Someone recommended Love in the Time of Cholera, and I did learn from the part of the autobiography I read that it's based on the story of how his parents met. So hopefully I'll get

[hope_tang]

Sometimes I think no one actually knows what magical realism is...including the people who are supposed to know. Based on what you've said, I'd describe Mink River as a story with magical elements to it, instead of magical realism (genre).

If you are going to read Marquez, I would also glance through a South American history text beforehand. Magical realism as a genre tend to be "national family dramas" so major events in history appear in the stories and impact the storyline (sometimes in very strange ways). I would also suggest keeping vague plot notes...

[bluewillowtree]

Yeah, after reading all these comments, it definitely sounds like this book isn't magical realism and that I'm probably much happier that way!

And thanks for the tip if I do get around to reading Marquez. I like history and don't know much about that of South America, so that reading would probably be worthwhile either way.

[tracyj23]

It sounds a little too weird for me. I like full and interesting characters but these ones sound really over the top ...

Glad you enjoyed it though. You're braver than I!

Oh, and what's Magical Realism?

[bluewillowtree]

I really am glad I stuck with it. This is the book I was talking about in early January, but it didn't take me this whole time to read it; I had to return it to the library because there were other holds for it, and then had to wait till I got it back.

The characters themselves really aren't all that weird. They're just presented in a different way than many other novels, but it worked for me :)

I'm not entirely sure what magical realism is, or whether it is what I think it might be. I've never read any of the well-known examples of the genre. But the reason I think this book might qualify is that it's set in the real world and definitely isn't fantasy, but there are elements to the story that wouldn't happen in the real world, like the crow who can not only talk, but thoughtfully converse with the town's human population, and a young bear who carries a kid to safety after a bad fall. Magical realism sounds like a good description of this, but it might mean something different in the literary world?

I spent at least three months of my life studying this, and it still doesn't make sense...

[hope_tang]

Magical realism is...difficult to explain, but it doesn't sound like Mink River belongs to this genre

Re: I spent at least three months of my life studying this, and it still doesn't make sense...

[tracyj23]

Amen. I don't mind complex stories but a flow chart? Yeah, too much. I'm not even sure how authors keep all of that straight in their own heads!