The Changeling
I've been meaning to read The Changeling since I first heard about it. And I'm so glad I finally got around to it. I hesitated because the premise seemed genuinely upsetting - a woman kills her baby and then disappears, leaving her husband wondering what the hell happened and trying to track her down in an increasingly magical New York City. Probably not the sort of book you should read when you've just had a kid, or when you're pregnant again. But I clung to the hint in the title and decided to take the plunge. And I'm so glad I did.
I've read a lot of books over the years that claim to be similar to American Gods, but this is the one that comes closest to hitting that mark for me. It is very much about America and how the tales we tell shape our lives, how we do and don't repeat the mistakes of our forefathers, how we don't always interrogate our traditions when maybe we should, how this country has been shaped entirely by immigration. Like that book, the magic creeps up gradually here, until it suddenly seems like you're reading a different book than the one you started. But it all comes together in a beautiful, satisfying way. (Though I would have like a bit more assurance that everything would be okay at the end.)
More than anything this book is about being a parent. It's about the mistakes our parents made raising us and the ones we try not to pass on to our kids. The new mistakes we make, that our parents never even had the opportunity to make. The ways we miss the forest because we're so focused on the trees. While it's mostly from the father's perspective, there's a lot in here about parenting in general. And it's all filtered through fairy tales, being a fairy tale itself, which appeals to me on a primordial level.
I enjoyed The Ballad of Black Tom, but this book really made me fall in love with Victor LaValle. I'm eager to see what he writes next.
I've read a lot of books over the years that claim to be similar to American Gods, but this is the one that comes closest to hitting that mark for me. It is very much about America and how the tales we tell shape our lives, how we do and don't repeat the mistakes of our forefathers, how we don't always interrogate our traditions when maybe we should, how this country has been shaped entirely by immigration. Like that book, the magic creeps up gradually here, until it suddenly seems like you're reading a different book than the one you started. But it all comes together in a beautiful, satisfying way. (Though I would have like a bit more assurance that everything would be okay at the end.)
More than anything this book is about being a parent. It's about the mistakes our parents made raising us and the ones we try not to pass on to our kids. The new mistakes we make, that our parents never even had the opportunity to make. The ways we miss the forest because we're so focused on the trees. While it's mostly from the father's perspective, there's a lot in here about parenting in general. And it's all filtered through fairy tales, being a fairy tale itself, which appeals to me on a primordial level.
I enjoyed The Ballad of Black Tom, but this book really made me fall in love with Victor LaValle. I'm eager to see what he writes next.
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