The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness
Rating: ★★★★
Patrick Ness is defending his title as one of my favorite authors. His command of language is absolutely extraordinary. He has mastered the ability to weave a tight web of magic and emotion. He used this same magic in A Monster Calls, and More Than This, but there is something more mature about the magic in The Crane Wife. It seems to speak to adults, to love, to complicated feelings, and complicated living. I don't think I can explain any further than that after just one read. I highly recommend you experience this magic first hand-- go to the library or the bookstore and pick up the book. It's worth it.
The opening paragraph alone had me diving into this book headfirst, ready for more.
"What actually woke him was the unearthly sound itself-- a mournful shatter of frozen midnight falling to earth to pierce his heart and lodge there forever, never to move, never to melt-- be he, being who he was, assumed it was his bladder"
Amazing, am I right?
Favorite Quotes:
"It was in places like this that eternity happened" (12).
"Their lives had intersected with his fora moment, something that real life did in various ways at every instant of every day for every person everywhere, of course, but it only ever really mattered when it was you, didn't it?" (41)
"Did it matter? George thought perhaps it did, and not in terms of finding the truth or of any hope of discovering what really happened at any given moment. There were as many truths -- overlapping, stewing together -- as there were tellers. The truth mattered less than the story's life. A story forgotten died. A story remembered not only lived, but grew" (42).
"She didn't cry after he left, didn't feel angry or sad or anything at all, just watched brightly colored people suffer brightly colored hysteria all across the Saturday night telly" (113).
"'No!' she said, suddenly sharp. 'Not explain. Stories do not explain. They seem to, but all they provide is a starting point. A story never ends at the end. There is always after. And even within itself, even by saying that this version is the right one, it suggests other versions, versions that exist in parallel. No, a story is not an explanation, it is a net, a net through which the truth flows. The net catches some of the truth, but not all, never all, only enough so that we can live with the extraordinary without it killing us" (142).
