Another Egyptian book. No wait, I haven't put much reviews up for the tons of others I've been getting into, so you guys won't really know what I'm talking about. Let's just say that I have a newfound obession with Egyptian mythology, and leave it at that. So looking at the cover, it should be pretty obvious why I picked it off the bookshelf. And the fact that it was only 6.00 bucks at PLB made the deal all the more sweeter.
Now, I highly doubt that Lisa Goldstein would be familiar to any one of you. Despite the fact that she's got quite a number of awards under her belt (I've been doing my research), she doesn't seem to surface much in mainstream fiction. Her genre is...how shall I put it? Different. As different as Khairul's music taste. Like 'The Streets' "Pyeow pyeow" to Britney's mainstream caterwauling. I know it's a subject of much debate right now on my blog, to which I shall admit defeat for now. But enough about that- now to the review.
Despite having Anubis on the front cover, the story isn't that heavily Egyptian. It greatly focuses on the central character Ruthie, a journalist who's trying to write a book on a boy, whose mother is a famous children's author. Word was that his mother got her insipration to write her fantasy books from stories that the boy told her as a child. (The boy is now in his 50s) It mostly revolves around this 'other world' to which the boy found the gate to underground, through a door he found in a great big tree.
Whoa. Stop. Alice in Wonderland-ish? Getting turned off by how childish this is starting to sound? Don't. There's more.
The idea for this book is really simple. Peter Pan (not the Indonesian band), Alice in Wonderland, The Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, even. What if, all these authors got their inspiration from a particular place, if not directly themselves, then from people they knew who ended up there at one time or another? This place, this underground world that the boy mentioned above stumbled into, that goldmine for inspiration, is what this book revolves around.
Of course, there's much more to that underground world that talking mermaids, fairies and such. In fact, you'll find no such thing there. So how does it work, exactly? That's where I would be giving away too much. Because there are...say, other people interested in this place apart from the journalist author, who's just trying to write her book, and the boy, who's now trying to reconnect the events of his past. And not everyone has good intentions.
No romanticism in this novel. Unless you're looking for ickiness, considering the main male character is 50 and the woman is well, 40. Definitely not an outing for people looking for a good love story. But in a sense, sometimes books like these are fun to pick up if only to get away from the moaning and whimpering of lovebirds who you know are going to be kissing before the story ends.
The story develops itself at a suitably fast pace. By the end of the first chapter, you already know that great things are going to happen in this book, thus making it hard to put down, just because you want to understand what the heck is going on. It probably doesn't help that every once in a while, you're treated to a slight glimpse as to what the 'other parties' are doing.
So pick it up if the concept intrigues you. Either wait for me to come home or buy it from Borders, I'm quite sure I saw it there.
Of course, it won't cost 6 bucks if you buy it there. ^^
8 out of 10.
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