Gifts

I was surprised when I saw a recent profile of Le Guin in a newspaper which mentioned that she had begun a new series of books - the first of which is GIFTS. I admire Le Guin so much that I was wary approaching it - not wanting an idol to fall at this stage. There are very few writers of her age who would embark on such a thing and even fewer who could capture and sustain an audience for a fresh series of books. However, my trepidation was unfounded: Le Guin is (as always) an exception - GIFTS is a majestic, troubling and powerful book. It treads completely fresh ground - although there are thematic trheads that tie it particularly to the latter books in the Earthsea sequence: Tehanu and The Other Wind. It is resolutely an adult novel that only comes into the fantasy genre by default. As with all her fiction she sketches in a new world deftly and subtly so that you scarcely notice what it is she has done. She never uses pyrotechnics or familiar genre tricks. She just writes with piercing honesty and simplicity. Over the years I've read the odd review of Le Guin books criticising either her prose style or her politics: flat, dull preaching. To such critics I say "numbskulls" - Le Guin's prose is sparse, yes, but it is stylish. Her politics are visible but they are thought through and measured. She is provocative, but never on a soap box. I hope she is hale and hearty and long-long lived and that GIFTS marks the beginning of a sequence of books as remarkable as Earthsea was - but written by a wise old woman who, I suspects, knows everything important that there is to be known about the human condition.

There are lots of reasons to like a good LeGuin novel--her spare prose, her sharpness of description, her ease of storytelling, but in simple terms, when LeGuin writes well (nearly always), it boils down to the fact that reading becomes bare unadorned pleasure. Pleasure at its purest and simplest. And that is the gift of this newest book. The backstory is pretty simple--families living in the Uplands have hereditary magical abilities or "gifts" (one type to a family) that can and usually are employed to harm: gifts of "unmaking" (killing/destroying), of "calling" (calling animals--used to call them to be killed), of "twisting" (maiming things and people), of "wasting" (cursing with a slowly fatal illness). The clans feud back and forth over land, cattle, etc. yet must also stay on terms to keep interbreeding as the gifts are strongest when bred true through the family. The description of the clans reminded me of old Celtic tales of cattle-thieving etc. Fans of Irish/Scottish old tales of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain series might see some similarities). Into this world come two youths raised as friends since childhood. Orrec's family has the gift of unmaking (using the eyes and hands) and there is a lot of pressure on him early when his gift takes its time to manifest itself, possibly because his mother is an ungifted "lowlander" who left the lowlands to wed his father after a raid. When his gift does appear, it seems to be "wild", uncontrollable and a danger to those around him. At his own urging, Orrec is blindfolded to protect those he loves. Along with its personal impact, this also has larger ripples: on his budding romance with his childhood friend Gry, on his relationship with his mother and father, on his family's relationship with a bordering family whose aggressively greedy leader, Ogge Drum, threatens both Gry and Orrec's homes. Gry, meanwhile, who has the talent to call animals, has decided she has no desire to do so if it simply leads to their death. She refuses to join the hunts and calls into question the whole underlying theory and application of the gifts. This is a slim story, yet works on many levels. The simple plot is effectively suspenseful and well-paced: will Orrec remain blindfolded, will he and Gry marry, will Gry be forced to use her talent, will they withstand Ogge Drum, etc. The deeper stories are even more effective. The relationships between two adolescents and their parents as they try to find their own way, their own identities. The changing relationship between the two of them as they shift from friends to perhaps more, from powerless to powerful, from passive to active, from adolescent to adult. The larger issues of power and restraint. None of these are handled in ham-handed fashion; all of them are subtly and nicely interwoven to add pleasure and complexity. The style is typical LeGuin. Spare, poetic, vivid. There isn't a word out of place and she makes five words do what most need fi

I recently finished reading Gifts, and I have to admit it totally took me by surprise. My mom gave me the book, and it looked sort of...weird. But once it gets into the story, it's completely awesome! It's really interesting and complex, and I love how at the end it all comes together. It totally turns around at the end of the book. Gifts is one of the best books I've ever read! I can't even begin to explain how good it is. It should be the law to have to read it :-P

Gifts is a fascinating book. It's the story of Orrec, who is a member of a family with a powerful and dangerous gift. It is expected that he will inherit the gift, but he is past the age when the gift usually shows itself. The gift is the main tool the family has to protect itself, but Orrec is faced with a difficult choice about whether to use the gift at all. I felt like I was living Orrec's situation, facing the choices and uncertainty he faced. I think it's really interesting that Le Guin sets up a situation in which the characters are desperate for better communication, but then resists the temptation to resolve things simply by having them suddenly be able to talk about what they need to be able to talk about. And because they can't talk about it, many questions are left unanswered, both in the characters' and the reader's minds. In my opinion, this makes the book more realistic, even though it's fantasy. Every character in the book seemed real and complex to me - including the dogs and the horses, and I think that's saying something. Le Guin never tells the reader everything - there's no omniscient explanation of the major events and then characters' reactions to them. Instead, she only gives you bits and pieces - the speculations of the characters - and leaves it to the reader to put things together. There's an emphasis on the value of literature and poetry and storytelling to the cultures in the world Le Guin has created that is a common theme for her, but it's as compelling as ever in Gifts. This book is a serious contender for the Printz award.