And so, us readers are taken to the island village of Neverness, which is somewhat like rural medieval Northern Europe; horses and sheep, fishing, the baking of bread and the eating of eggs. Zoe Gilbert opens with a thundering scene. A young lad is running, thudding, through a hillside of gorse with other lads. She tells us that there is sweat. That there is stink of leather. For the young lad it is his first time at the gorse game. He fights the thorns of the gorse. He runs headlong deeper into the gorse, seeking the Gorse Mother. What is this annual event of the folk of Neverness?
Folk is a story of the folk of Neverness. It is not in any way a 'traditional' novel of a 'story' with core characters. The whole cast of the folk of Neverness are the characters. Characters have a story to tell, and then other characters are told. Werrity Prowd, in her bloom. The ox-men and what they do. May who grows into the supreme fiddler. And the places of Neverness too have their stories told; the Bard House, the seashore caves that are scoured into different shapes, the places where the sheep are tended and the kites fly. Characters and places are re-introduced and re-woven across the two generations of the span of Folk.
Folk is spun with truly dazzling writing. Zoe Gilbert is both gifted and inspired in her words and the architectures that they build. Her sentences paint the world of Neverness both subtly and with a thumping pulse. Folk is kinda sorta magical realism, but it is far more than just that genre. Zoe Gilbert's words thump and beat viscerally, and tell of scents and temperatures and storms and winds. The folk of Neverness live a raw life, but a life that is full of their engrained traditions and ways.
There is really nothing much comparable to what Zoe Gilbert has written. A small number of stories from a small number of contemporary writers spring to mind, but she has written something unique.
There is a map of Neverness; I like maps that show the geography of the place where the storyteller is beguiling us. Just so you know. And, is there anything that is hard work, or does not quite work, in Folk, you might (you should really) ask? Yes is my answer. Because each of the folk of Neverness is written into the story I had to sometimes remind myself of who was who. And towards the end a couple of chapters feel like filler, non-essential, just in there to get them in. But still a masterpiece.
The last chapter of Folk begins exactly as the first chapter. The Gorse Game. Two generations after the first chapter. Folk have died and folk have been born, married, lived. Neverness endures as the folk fade in and then are gone. And what endures for this reader is the visceral magic of this author and her craft.
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Top reviews from other countries
MJ
Short stories that are fantastically surreal
Reviewed in India on June 18, 2018
MJ
Reviewed in India on June 18, 2018
Neverness is a village where magic is inherently woven into the fabric of life and is thus considered a normal everyday thing. For example, there is a boy born with a wing instead of an arm and everyone else in this village treats it as an irksome handicap rather than fainting with the shock of witnessing a bird-human hybrid. As if continuing the connection of the Russian backdrop from the cover, there is an element of Russian folktale-like underlying current of tragedy in almost every story. Also, it feels as if winter is always just around the corner in this isolated little island. As a sort of counter-point to the atmosphere and their isolation, the people come across as stalwart and a little devoid of humour, with a well-spring of patience and burning passions lurking underneath the surface. Even their celebrations, like the one at every New Year’s Eve, are more along the lines of a blood-thirsty sport with the promise of some form of sexual gratification at the end. When you realize that the sport is being played by teenagers, it takes on another layer of unreality and other-worldliness.
The stories are dark and solemn, talking about the lives lived and lost in a small community. The stories are filled with heartbreak, aching loss, nostalgia, loneliness and a kernel of uplifting hope. These are stories about families – sisters and mothers and fathers and sons. It’s a story of friends who help another when they get in over their heads. It is about superstitions coming to life. There are stories about coming of age in different ways. There are stories of sheer brutality and even murder. There are stories about how a small community will turn its face away from an ugly truth rather than rock the boat.
In short, these stories are not for the faint hearted, or ones who would like a conventional fairytale. As the stories progress, many passing references unwind into full-fledged stories of their own, opening up the lives of the villagers as if to a stranger newly settled come to town. One story, where a stranger does come to town, was darkly funny with a nod to the oft-repeated and very truthful adage ‘be careful what you wish for’.
The first and last stories are like bookends, as they complete a cycle. The characters who began as teenagers in the first are now adults with young ones of their own in the last tale. Some of them have survived the transition, both physically and spiritually better than others, while some are still struggling. By the end of the book, the reader knows them as well as the author knows them. There are hidden depths to each tale that are not too difficult to discern and as such are a pleasure to read again and again.
The author’s prose is interlaced with metaphors that combine nature and everyday life into a sentence that is almost poetic in its essence. For instance, ‘The door of the day is nearly shut, but it is the hinge of the year itself’ when describing the evening at the turn of the year. Her imagination has a uniqueness that is as refreshing as it is disturbing. Even the title of the book, ‘Folk’, is understated in its simplicity and elegance. It manages to convey just the right amount of information and intrigue to the reader.
For lovers of the fantasy and short story genre, this first time offering by Zoe Gilbert is a gift that will be enjoyed for years to come.
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skycat
Beautiful writing, but I'd hardly call it a novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2018