The wood wife (edition 1998)

"The Wood Wife" is one of those books that changed the face of American Literature. It was voted one of the 100 Best Books of the 20th Century (http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/) right between "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison and "The Magus" by John Fowles. It also won the 1997 Mythopoeic Award (http://www.mythsoc.org/awards/winners/). It also assisted in developing the whole Urban Fantasy genre. “The Wood Wife” is based in Arizona and blends the myths and legends of Native America and of fairie in a lyrical manner all it's own. It is mystery and magic melded to a degree which, if it doesn't touch your heart brings into question the depth of your humanity.

Poetic, multifaceted, mystical. All in all, a joy of a book, and an absolute must for any true fantasy aficionado. ( )

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and its vivid sense of place. I usually dislike books that talk of poets as heroic characters but for some reason this was done so seamlessly I didn't bother me. ( )

I picked up this book because I was/am trying to read as much of the early urban/mythic fantasy books as I can get my hands on.

I fell in love with Charles de Lint's Forests of the Heart early on, and after reading more of his works, decided to go for Terri Windling next, hoping for something similar in terms of both the mythic themes and the love of the desert. I was also interested in how much, if any, Windling's and de Lint's friendship may have influenced their writings.

There are may common elements between the two authors. The Wood Wife, to some extent, shares the same idea of consent reality found in de Lints books, and the idea of paintings creating bodies for spirits found in de Lint's Memory and Dream seems to be taken directly from this book. Also, the obvious love for the desert is common between the two authors, as is the discontent with the urbanization of it.

However, where the two authors diverge is their writing style. Windling is much more straightforward and much less lyrical than de Lint. However, she tends to describe things to a much greater extent -- especially the lighting.
When reading de Lint, I always got an impression of poetry, even though his works are strictly prose. With The Wood Wife, my impression (despite the embedded poetry sprinkled throughout) was of light. There were many times while reading this book that I looked up from it to the set of paintings of desert sunsets I have hanging on my wall. She makes me want to go to the desert, just for a while, despite the fact that I've never been that far west in my life. ( )

Incredible. There needs to be a name for the genre that is this book and War for the Oaks, because I think they're pretty much the same thing. Humans And Faeries Together They Don't Understand Each Other Very Well But It's Still Pretty Awesome? Something like that. ( )

When the girl uncurled, she had been transformed, or else had transformed herself, into a grey hare, a desert jackrabbit, covered in a layer of dust.

When poet Davis Cooper is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Maggie Black, who had corresponded with Cooper for years but never met him, inherits his house in the Arizona desert near Tucson. She decides to live in the house for a while and write his biography. She gradually realises that the earth spirits of Cooper's poetry and his long-dead lover's paintings may not be imaginary and that some of the locals are more than they seem.

I had trouble getting into this book, but by the time I was half-way through I had been ensnared by the magic of the desert and its inhabitants, whether human, animal, or something in between. The way that Anna & Cooper's imagination had given forms to the earth spirits that had always been there reminded me of "Mythago Wood", whose mythic inhabitants come from the deepest recesses of the collective unconscious and can also be formed by people who get too involved with the wood.

I know the author was inspired by Brian Froud's paintings, but did she have to mention his name quite so often? I found it a bit irritating and for me it broke the spell of the story every time it happened. ( )