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Jump to navigationJump to searchMoonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjon and Victoria Cribb (translator) (view source)
Revision as of 09:45, 19 January 2017
, 09:45, 19 January 2017no edit summary
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These are big themes, yet Sjon distils them into a novella. I read everything in just under three hours and that included the indulgence of rereading sections just for the pure pleasure of the way that words are used. There isn't a superfluous word in the book and everyone has been placed with care and skill. Sjon is obviously a novelist but he's also a poet, playwright and a librettist - and it shows. Superficially, the different threads of the story - Spanish flu, the birth of cinematography, the Katla eruption, the Great War and the situation of homosexuals - are disparate and it's difficult to imagine that they could be knitted together satisfactorily, but by the end of the story it was impossible to think that they couldn't be linked.
Sjon describes Mani Stein as being the closest to himself of all his characters. His character ( being an outsider and rather rebellious) and his interests, particularly the obsession with the movies, put Sjon in mind of himself as an adolescent. Mani's life was harder and Sjon is not gay, but the adolescent Sjon and Mani Stein would certainly recognise each other.
It's a stunning book which stays with you long after you've finished reading. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
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