August 14, 2006

Book of the Week: THE STOLEN CHILD by Keith Donahoe

THE STOLEN CHILD by Keith Donahoe is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve read in a long time. I understand it’s Donahoe’s first novel, which makes THE STOLEN CHILD that much more extraordinary. Donahoe takes the folk legends about changelings and turns it into something dark, mysterious, and utterly his own.

In Donahoe’s world, a gang of hobgoblins lives in the forest. In appearance they’re like young children. Actually, they’re very old. They watch the children in the nearby town, waiting to find an isolated child (both emotionally and physically) that can be abducted. The oldest hobgoblin takes the child’s place.

The narrative alternates between the taken child and the substitute, who retains his own consciousness and is always aware that he is not the real child. His existence depends on his ability to imitate the child, so his whole life is a lie. The stolen child forgets more and more of his past as he assimilates into the hobgoblin tribe.

This book is a fascinating achievement, written in many layers. It’s impossible to look out at the woods and not feel a little nervous, after you’ve read it.

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To me, shopping is a necessary evil. Since I live in a small town, I pretty much have to travel to do serious shopping, so it’s in the nature of an expedition, surrounded by planning and deadlines. I can’t just casually drop into a mall to spend an idle hour.

My daughter is not a good shopper. She hates to try things on, she hates to try to coordinate, and she’d pretty much rather be at the sporting goods store or the music store. And if you’re trying to get her to buy something dressy, forget it. You might as well just drop darts in your foot, which would be about as much fun and a lot less painful.

So on our back-to-school expedition, this time we tried . . . speed shopping. Of course this evolved by accident, since we had a finite amount of time and a lot of things to get. But it worked out great, so next year I’m going to try to follow the same procedure.

And here it is: Stride confidently into the store, find a salesperson, tell her what you need, and when she produces it (blue jeans, say), your daughter goes into the cubicle while you wait until she’s decided one pair will do. While you’re purchasing that pair, she’s on to the next store, to duplicate the procedure.

Of course, this is assuming you have a daughter old enough to go to the next store by herself, and that you don’t let your kid try on anything you’re not willing to pay for, which avoids lengthy arguments. (“No, you can’t have $125 jeans!” “But Mom, they fit great!”)

We didn’t manage to get everything on her list, but we made a sizeable dent in the two hours we had. And neither of us was hysterical at the end of the two hours. So now we’ve got a method, and all we have to do is duplicate it.

In this time of Speed Dating and drive-in windows, I guess Speed Shopping was an idea just waiting to be adopted.

--Charlaine Harris