Parenthetical.net

Ok, I sing Dar Williams unironically and can my own produce, and this book was too hippie even for me:

I opened my hand to give away my last gift, the [weaving] shuttle they had made for me two years ago when I came to live with them. It was the last piece of the life I knew, and I put it in Blue Leaf’s hand. “The gift moves,” I said, somehow letting out the words and keeping in the tears.
“It moves,” she replied.
Blue Leaf and Bone held up their hands and looked at me. I hoped they wouldn’t try to touch me. I didn’t know how to leave.
“Go now, Path,” said Blue Leaf. “Go. Take with you what we have given you. Let it grow. Let it open wide.”

Believe it or not, this is post-apocalyptic science fiction. It’s an agrarian almost-utopia, which I’m starting to see more and more (The Secret Beneath My Skin, The People of Sparks). Only there’s no dis- hiding beneath this utopia. Everyone seems genuinely happy in their post-consumer hippie paradise.

As to whether you’ll like it, that quote is pretty representative of the whole book. There are some cool feats of bioengineering (batteries do grow on trees!), but otherwise… there’s a lot of emotional discussion of leaving and finding homes, a lot of giving gifts and receiving gifts, a lot of people named things like Blue Leaf and Path.

And everything is written like a folk song, which is appropriate because apparently this started out as a folk song, until George Ella (according to the dedication) told the author it “sounded like a story and not a song.” I’m not sure I agree.

Also reviewed at: Curled Up With a Good Book.

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