The Beginning Place

The Beginning Place begins as the story of Hugh Rogers, a young man who lives with his demanding mother, works in a grocery store, and feels "kinda stuck." Trying to run away from his painful life, Hugh accidentally discovers a portal into another place, a sort of twilight land, which eases his spirit. He begins to visit the place regularly. One day he meets Irene, who has been visiting the twilight land for years, and who regards it as her own special place. Irene resents Hugh's masculine intrusion into the place that serves as a refuge from her own unpleasant life.

Irene takes Hugh to meet the inhabitants if Mountain Town, where she has been welcomed and has fallen in love with the Master of the town. The town's inhabitants can no show more longer travel on the roads because of a nameless fear. Hugh, who does not feel the fear, agrees to confront it on their behalf. He has fallen in love with Allia, daughter of Lord Horn and a rather insipid creature who reminded me of Lucy Mannette. Resentfully, Irene translates for Hugh to enable him to communicate with the residents, and agrees to lead him where he must go.

Irene accompanies Hugh on his journey to meet and confront the monster that threatens the town. In doing this, of course, both are facing the fears and conditions that have made their lives miserable, and they can succeed only in each other's company.

One could read this as an allegory describing how readers use books (the twilight land) to find a way to safely confront the issues with which they cannot deal directly in their daily lives. This is no unsubtle Narnia, however; LeGuin weaves mythic elements and everyday details into an adventure story that is both eloquent and moving. Hugh and Irene are well drawn characters, and the characters and the events support each other to create an interesting and rewarding read. My favorite of this great author's "minor" works. show less

The story itself is not nearly as interesting as the way it's constructed. While the plot itself is simple – two young people meet in a magical, peaceful world, but soon they find their refuge becoming a place of horror and nightmare – Le Guin's writing style (at least in this book) is incredibly rich and complex. Her language is sumptuous, like a banquet of meaty, delectable words, strung together in unexpected, astonishing ways. (For example, "then he put his hand into the water and felt the musculature of the currents press against his palm." – yum!) Symbolism abounds and some symbols change meaning, paralleling the lives of the main characters and giving the story multiple layers of depth. The vocabulary itself isn’t show more difficult, but this is not an “easy read.” Its literary artistry and complexity requires a good deal of concentration from the reader. This book is fertile ground for fascinating discussions in advanced literature classes; and yet could still be appreciated by somewhat less proficient readers… just ask them to be patient, as the “real story” begins some 30 pages into the book! show less

One of the few Le Guin books to severely disappoint me, to the point of throwing it against the wall, picking it up, and throwing it again.

It starts out well enough, with all the promise of a "fish out of water" story -- two teens cross into another land that is harassed and restricted by an unseen but horrifying monster. Everything builds up as expected, but when the confrontation comes, it is as if Le Guin got tired of the story and just walked out on it. She might have been trying to do something "meta" but if that was the point, it was a bait and switch.

I might revisit this book one day just to see if being older and better read will improve my understanding, but I still expect to want a nice, solid wall nearby.

Hugh is trapped in suburbia and a dead-end job by his mother's fear. Desperate for escape, he goes running one night and finds a gateway into an idyllically fresh world. The clean water and air, the lack of humans, makes him return to it again and again. But he's not the only one to have found the gate--years ago, Irena discovered the way through while escaping from her gruesome step-father. She feels betrayed that someone else has found her secret spot, but the villagers who live in this perpetually twilit Arcadia are excited--he's the one they've been waiting for.

The roads to the village have been closed by an unamable fear. The villagers are slowly starving, and only Hugh the outsider can get through the roads. Irena demands to go show more with him, and the two set off together.

On the one hand, this is a pleasingly realistic book. Hugh and Irena spend a lot of time getting lost in the woods, and their internal lives are perfectly described. On the other, not a lot happens, and what little happens is never explained. The story is a bit like Steinbeck's writing style crossed with Patricia McKillip at her most elliptical. This is my least favorite book by Le Guin. It's not bad, but it's not all that good, either. show less

At 1st this seemed like just what I needed after I endured the colossal boredom of Gertrude Stein's "The Making of Americans": 2 people trapped in the horrors of ordinary suburban life discover a wooded place w/ stream where clocktime is slowed. They go there & are happy for a while w/o spending so much time that they miss going to their jobs. I wd've given this 4 stars but then it degenerated a little into a variation on a sword & sorcery hack job romance. Still, I liked it. I've never read anything by LeGuin that didn't have some strength of idea.

This book starts out beautifully and sort of collapses before it gets anywhere interesting. I'm always willing to eat up a story about introverted youths discovering secret worlds and going on quests that help them come of age, and it's true that this one evokes that feeling of aimless yearning that made up about 80% of my teenage brain. But as far as the story goes, this is the most bare-bones version of this plot that I can imagine.

The protagonists come across a nice little village that needs help, but we're never told what the problem is, what caused it, or how it can be solved. Maybe the specifics are vague so the ensuing quest will be experienced more as a metaphor. But as a result it ends up feeling inauthentic -- the characters show more change without experiencing anything that would lead to that change, at least not as abruptly as it happens here.

It's hard not to compare this book to The Magicians, which is a more realistic take on the same kind of story. But even beyond the thematic issues, the real problem is that the book is 3/4 of the way over before the quest begins, and then most of the quest is the anticipation of walking through the wilderness. There are some appealing aspects of this story and I wanted to like it, but it never really came together for me. show less

I've marked this as a YA because the attitudes of the 2 main characters seem to reflect that time of uncertainty/change/figuring out how to move on with your life. And yet their age is given as early 20's. Nowadays we'd expect this emotional state to be that of, perhaps, 16 year olds. I suppose that makes it an old-fashioned tale, along with the heroism, the tale of a quest. The point of view of the chapters switches between Irena & Hugh, giving us their back story as well as different perspectives on the events after they meet "across the Threshold".
It was an interesting read, not quite what I expected from LeGuin, but all right. I do think it's the kind of story that will be pondered in the back of my mind for a bit.
This tale has a show more sense of timelessness which reminds me of The Wall, time just going on and on, no meaning to time--it is irrelevant. I was very attracted to the sense of sureness had by Hugh & Irena both, when they arrived in a place of total acceptance and safety, or were doing what was their purpose--fulfilling their role. Made me wish I were better at "going with the flow." show less