In the Land of Winter [Hardcover]

Pippa Rede may be a lousy breadwinner and an indifferent witch, but she is a *very* good mother. In a right-thinking world, that should make up for a lot. But Pippa's world, like ours, is not always a right-thinking world.

Through a cascade of coincidence, misunderstandings, and malice, inoffensive Pippa, whose magic consists largely of trying *not* to wish other people ill, becomes the focus of (literally) a modern-day witch-hunt. Self-styled cult experts and Child Protective Services descend on the home Pippa's aunt reluctantly shares with her and her daughter, Winterbelle, and, without so much as a hearing, snatch Winterbelle away. Grant is at his best portraying Pippa's misery, misery so deep that the subsequent loss of her job and eviction by her aunt barely register.

In the days that follow, Pippa attracts an oddly-assorted and badly-organized collection of allies -- some, quite humanly, with agendas of their own that do not always keep Pippa's only priority (the safe return of Winterbelle) first. Things go from worse to worst, and Pippa becomes a fugitive from the law.

A more heartfelt and less cerebral work than Grant's _Tex and Molly in the Afterlife_, _In the Land of Winter_ is imbued with the same wry humor (and a few moments of over-the-top humor). At the same time, Grant displays a poetic sensibility concerning the novel's organization, as well as the choice and placement of words. Grant places words on the page with the same care that Pippa brings to organizing a ceremonial space.

Ultimately, Pippa becomes the hero of her own story. Candid and clear-eyed as a child herself, Pippa has always accepted whatever has come her way. Faced at last with something she cannot accept, she discovers the strength of her own magic -- an innocent and childlike kind of magic, though not without danger. The story's end is a fairy-tale festival of righted wrongs and punishments that fit the crimes.

I am sorry the Kirkus reviewer is so damn jaded. It may not be Dostoyevsky, but it's a fine book with characters you care about. I am particularly happy to see someone write such a good, Regular Guy type of witch. The religion and magic are not incidental, but they don't mean only pagans or outre religious feminists will be comfortable here. Anyone who likes a good read, clean deep affection, and a taste of individual liberties will find a couple of hours' joy in this book.

John Crowley or Charles deLint, two writers I find most similar to Grant in quality and themes. All three are engaged in making interesting stories out of Comparative Religion, out of what Alan Watts used to call "these things". Some writers get into your Dasein and make you do things. Because of Grant's Rumors of Spring, I have been growing Dictamnus alba for quite a few years. Having had time to consider I believe I made a mistake and the plant Grant had in mind was in fact Origanum dictamnus, prominent in several wiccan workings. This is not a bad thing; such misreadings are-- according to Harold Bloom (the clinamen) - the very origin of creativity. It is another kind of error, of a lamentable kind, that the anonymous Kirkus reviewer makes when he confuses Carol Deacon Aaby, the pitiable, negative fulcrum of the story with Dr. Allison Rhinum, the child psychologist who is the true author of evil. One of the pleasures in reading Grant is that he gets so many things right. Harvey Goldaster from Views from the Oldest House is Cernunnos both as Lord of the Hunt and as Provider of Wealth. In the Land of Winter is the tale of Pippa Wrede and her daughter Winterbelle, two minor players in the antecedent Tex and Molly in the Afterlife. ILW reminds me of C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength. Both are bildungsroman-comings to self-involving a confrontation between an Immoral Society and a Moral [Wo]man. Jane Studdock (from Lewis) struggles against a pagan/secular culture that would eliminate Christianity and abolish Man. Old Nobodaddie would rule both in the sub-lunar and celestial spheres. Pippa has Winterbelle snatched by a bureaucracy informed by an evangelical Christianity rooting out Satanism. No matter... Prior to ILW, Grant's works have all been mythologies-large, complex, meta-stories with much context/intertext. ILW is simpler, a fairy tale. Its pleasures are of a different kind but no less real and satisfying.