Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: Fantasy
Setting: England, 1980s
POV: Third Person Singular (Polly Whittacker)
Mythos: Tam Lin / Thomas the Rhymer
In a word, tedious.
I have loved other books by Diana Wynne Jones - Howl's Moving Castle is one of my all-time favorites. Wynne Jones' send-up of fantasy tropes in Dark Lord of Derkhelm is spectacular - she writes a great fantasy while mocking the conventions of quests, elves, dragons, and (ahem!) Dark Lords. So hopes were high for this book.
The story begins when 19-year-old Polly is packing to go to college and realizes that she has two sets of memories dating from the time she was ten and accidentally crashed a funeral at a neighboring manor house, to the time she was fifteen. The first part of the book is her remembering the second set of memories, in which she and a man she met at this funeral carry on a friendship. Polly then must remember what she did to be made to forget the man, Tom Lynne, and their friendship - not only forget, but to have him obliterated from everyone else's memory as well so they cannot help her remember.
Tom Lynne is never given an age, although when Polly first meets him she thinks him old. He is a concert cellist for the British Philharmonic, and has actually been married and divorced from Laurel Perry, the matriarch of the strange family at the manor house; I'd say that makes him mid-twenties.
The two start a lengthy game of "Let's Pretend" that encompasses several visits and many letters over the four years that Polly now remembers. Tom Lynne sends Polly many books, most of them familiar fantasy classics. There are several unusual and spooky occurrences whenever they do manage to meet; Tom's strange family has forbidden Polly to have anything to do with him, and has apparently magical means to back up the dictate.
This could have been such a cool book. I think because Polly is so young it simply does not work. Polly's memories retain their youthfulness - the older Polly does not provide perspective at all when caught in the memories. Tom Lynne never really stands out as a character - we do not know how seriously to take him, and Polly spends a lot of her time thinking he's just having fun at her expense, although there are times he seems to take their game of "Let's Pretend" far more seriously then she does.
As Polly works on remembering exactly what it was she'd done to get Tom expelled from her memories she realizes who he is, and that the many books of fantasy were the only clues he could give her. She has to go back to the manor house and rescue him.
I don't suppose it's their friendship that rings false so much as their relationship; according to the back jacket copy, "Polly must uncover the secret, or her true love - and perhaps Polly herself - will be lost." Exactly when and how did Tom become Polly's true love? And isn't that a wee bit creepy, given their age difference and how young Polly is? And keeping in mind that it's been four years since she's seen him? And she was all of fifteen at that time? Yeah. This is what I'm having problems with. I suppose I want much more out of a book where the heroine is an avid reader of fantasy and known for being smart.
As far as actual writing/structure goes: Jones is a master at detail. We get a great feel for Polly's mundane life without ever being totally drowned in it. Some of the creepy things are made creepier by the few select details Jones gives.
The cover art (by Doug Beekman) is awful. It screams Gothic Romance (stately spooky house in the background, ominous male figure). Polly (there's no one else it could be) looks like she's 35 and, due to all the lace at her throat, some kind of Victorian/Edwardian heroine.
Reading Pleasure: 2/5
Learning Craft: 4/5
Read: October 2010
