It started with The Tooth Fairy. As soon as I finished it, I started it again. The other books of his that haunt me: The Facts of Life and The Limits of Enchantment.
Why? Two words: magic and place.
Magic: the way he makes it absolutely real, but utterly mysterious. We don’t know how it works. We don’t really even know what it is; it’s some kind of force, but it’s capricious, not subject to control. And the explanations we get about it from his characters are ambiguous and vague, but somehow nonetheless ring true.
Place: his sense of place is so strong. It makes me jealous. I want to figure out how he does it.
capn_jil
December 21, 2005 at 4:21 am‘sense of place’ re Graham Joyce? Explain further!
I had no idea he’d written more. I will have to examine this.
lkeele
December 21, 2005 at 4:33 amWhere are they set? A fantasy realm, or something real?
I’m pretty crummy with setting. It’s better if my settings are totally made up, or if I’ve lived in that particular place for a long time. That’s one of the reasons I keep moving around.
thisisnotanlj
December 21, 2005 at 11:12 amHis books have a variety of real-world settings, but the ones I mention above are all set in England — I think the part of England where he grew up. There’s such richness in his descriptions of the landscape, and the way his people talk feels so authentic.