Monday, December 17, 2012

A Review of Starflower by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Recently, I was delighted to read Anne Elisabeth Stengl’s most recent fantasy novel, Starflower. As each of her books hits the shelves of stores, I’m delighted to hold a copy and contemplate hours of pleasure to come. I don’t usually read it right away. It sits somewhere in sight, and I go about business as usual for a week or so. It would not do to open it and only be able to read a few sentences. I must wait for an evening when I have no other obligations, laundry has run, the house is quiet. Then I can snuggle down in a chair with a cup of coffee and slowly begin turning pages.

Since college, losing myself in books has been a challenge. First I was burned out from all the required reading. Second, I no longer had long lazy summers during which I could read stacks of mysteries, romances, and adventures. Yet somehow I continue making time to read paragraphs, pages, chapters. And every once in a while, I still find a book that takes hold of my attention such that, instead of reading a customary bedtime chapter, I turn another page, and another, more intentely, as the clock ticks and the lamp burns into the wee hours of the morning. And when that happens, I know I’ve found a book worth writing about.

buy this book at Bethany House Publishers
Fairy tales take us far away from our present cares, to a place where our steps are not so heavy nor our consciences so seared; and in this medium of deeper colors, lighter laughter, and wilder weeping, we find our wounds gently tended and truth filtered into our heart like ambient light to shine upon our worth and our weakness. Stengl writes adventurously and deliberately, delicately and boldly. And so, when her fourth book Starflower made its way into my hands, I was more than eager for the adventures in store.

Earlier books from the Tales of Goldstone Wood referred frequently to the ancient times Starflower would explore. I was most haunted by a passing scene in the previous book, Moonblood, when a ghostly apparition appeared in the Wood Between, speaking in an ancient accent and asking Lionheart to send word to Starflower. His brief presence—an unanswerable pathos, feeble tenacity—moved me deeply with a sorrow for dreams forever lost but never quite erased. Thus, as I literarily climbed the foothills of scene-setting in Starflower, gathering momentum for a late night a finis read, that mournful scene surfaced in my memory and heightened the alertness of my imagination.

Stengl never fails to bring classic literature to life in her newly imagined fairy tales. For those not familiar with George MacDonald or C.S. Lewis (not to mention some more antique treasures of fantasy, poetry, and allegory), the Tales of Goldstone Wood present anew some of the most insightful imagery wielded by old masters of literature. I hesitate to give away much of the content of the story.  In fact, I would hardly alter the blurb on the back cover, but to hint about a few of my favorite scenes. 

There is a comical ruler of an obscure demesne who has a plethora of frogs residing in royal swampiness. There is a burning city in which a famished mortal struggles onward with an endless reserve of determination. Then one's guts twist in compassion when a loveless child falls asleep in loving arms. There is joyful wonder when connections are made to other books in the series, and a increasing anticipation of approaching confrontations. And it wouldn’t be fair to forget entirely about a little songbird in a cage, who doesn't know fear and is thoroughly vain.  She resides in such a spot as to vex the tale’s resident tormented soul and to provide a directional force for the heroic journeys detailed.

Finally, I happily invite you to discover the other Tales of Goldstone Wood, but remind you that Stengl has generously written in such a manner that there is freedom to read the books in any order. So for now I am speaking for Starflower, and recommending it as a delightful page-turner that will tickle your funny bone and touch your heart.