Yesterday I finished reading Philip Reeve’s Here Lies Arthur.
I wasn’t sure when I started reading this novel that I would finish it. (Yes, I have finally learned to stop reading books I am not enjoying.) The portrayal of Arthur is very different than what one usually encounters, and I love that traditional image of a noble Arthur. However the main character, Gwyna, was interesting and Reeve’s crafting of descriptions quite intriguing, so I stuck with it. Here, for example, is a description of a setting:
“I remembered a villa in the hills, a Roman-ish place with…plump red cattle grazing the pastureland. Gorse popping in the sunshine as we rode to it along a white track, dust clouding from our horses’ hooves like smoke, and a hawk pinned on the sky high up.”
That hawk, pinned on the sky is one of many captivating images. What was not captivating was Reeve’s tendency to spread items of a series that should be separated by commas in one sentence out into a string of sentence fragments instead. It was clearly not done to create a singular effect, but rather his style throughout the novel.
When writing about Gwyna’s experiences in first person point of view, the tale is gripping. However, when Reeve shifts to Gwyna describing what has happened during scenes where she was not present, I found the narration jarring and a bit awkward.
What really grabbed me and kept me reading was Gwyna’s experiences and the thread that wove from the beginning of the novel to end. The title may say this is a book about King Arthur, but in truth it is a story about stories–how stories can color reality, refashion history, comfort, inspire, and enchant. Myrddin is the grand story weaver, but Gwyna proves herself a deft apprentice who would make her master proud.
Debby Zigenis-Lowery's Literate Lives 