Post by penigriffin on Nov 25, 2013 22:40:44 GMT
I can remember a time when DWJ was just another good children's author. It is my habit, when I discover someone I like, to check under their name at the library on every visit and check out one book at a time until I've read everything by that author. Having discovered DWJ, I began this procedure, choosing among the dozen titles available the one that appealed to me most at the time. Dogsbody sounded ridiculous. The Dog Star incarnated - as a dog - with a Cosmic Quest - and a child owner - no, that was just silly. But the day came when it was the last book by her on the shelf and I realized I couldn't bear to walk out without one, so I got it. And read it first.
And realized that I was in the presence of greatness.
I mean, holey cheese, the woman knocks this one out of the park! She sold me on Sirius; she sold me on the Cosmic Quest; she sold me on the Downtrodden Orphan Heroine; she juxtaposed two versions of her Sociopathic Domestic Terrorist (who I think I took all of two books to recognize as a recurring role) and made each distinct and believable; she sold me on the canine viewpoint and slipped canine sex right past the gatekeepers; she made me laugh; and then she hit me with that devastating climax in which Sirius triumphs and then realizes what he's done to the person he most loves on Earth: She said, "You don't look like Leo," and then added kindly, "but you look very nice, of course."
Seriously, is there a more devastating line in literature? Anywhere? Even by DWJ standards this is savage, and kicks me in the heart as hard as Old Yeller's death at Travis's hands; even a little harder, which is going a long way. It's that outrageous, courageous resignation of Kathleen's, beaten by life long past any hope of keeping anything she gets, and yet the kindness has still not been beaten out of her.
And yet, like Travis, Kathleen does get her muted happy ending; as happy as people ever do get, and of course not an ending really because she keeps on living after Sirius and his Leo incarnation (and her father, and all else that's lost) have gone. And gets her hope back, because (as with Yeller) eventually there's puppies.
From that point, every time I saw a DWJ book I pounced on it, and took it, and started reading it in the checkout. Because who cares what the book's about, if she wrote it?
And realized that I was in the presence of greatness.
I mean, holey cheese, the woman knocks this one out of the park! She sold me on Sirius; she sold me on the Cosmic Quest; she sold me on the Downtrodden Orphan Heroine; she juxtaposed two versions of her Sociopathic Domestic Terrorist (who I think I took all of two books to recognize as a recurring role) and made each distinct and believable; she sold me on the canine viewpoint and slipped canine sex right past the gatekeepers; she made me laugh; and then she hit me with that devastating climax in which Sirius triumphs and then realizes what he's done to the person he most loves on Earth: She said, "You don't look like Leo," and then added kindly, "but you look very nice, of course."
Seriously, is there a more devastating line in literature? Anywhere? Even by DWJ standards this is savage, and kicks me in the heart as hard as Old Yeller's death at Travis's hands; even a little harder, which is going a long way. It's that outrageous, courageous resignation of Kathleen's, beaten by life long past any hope of keeping anything she gets, and yet the kindness has still not been beaten out of her.
And yet, like Travis, Kathleen does get her muted happy ending; as happy as people ever do get, and of course not an ending really because she keeps on living after Sirius and his Leo incarnation (and her father, and all else that's lost) have gone. And gets her hope back, because (as with Yeller) eventually there's puppies.
From that point, every time I saw a DWJ book I pounced on it, and took it, and started reading it in the checkout. Because who cares what the book's about, if she wrote it?
