Return To Gone-Away
by Elizabeth Enright
Rating: *****
Read 9/29/2013

“Sometimes a story can open a world for you: you step into it and forget the real one you live in.”

I love these books. Not least because these two books were in the vanishingly small number of books that my son would deign to read. Not least because Enright understood boys right down to the bone. Not least because of the botanizing. Certainly because of the quality of the prose, which is unequalled. Certainly because of the characters.

Seriously, if you haven’t read any Enright? Stop dicking around on the internet and go read as much of her stuff as you can find.

Gone-Away Lake
by Elizabeth Enright
Rating: *****
Read 9/27/2013

09/13 Howling wildernesses! Tarquin et Pindar! Inner pie! How do I love this book? Let me count the ways. Having it on audio to listen to while I fall asleep is so splendid I can’t begin to say. Being far from home, waking in the deeps of the night, and instead of being disoriented, finding oneself on Craney Crow- well, the comfort is inexpressible.

12/12 Revisited this all-time favorite on audio during a road trip. I was stunned to learn that even though I reread it often, and I’ve read it countless times to my son, my husband had never heard of it. He loved it- to no one’s surprise. What’s not to love? It’s hilarious, it’s poignant, it’s got howling wildernesses, outer space and inner pie. It’s got The Gulper. So well-written, so evocative.