- Paperback: 322 pages
- Publisher: Orb Books; Reprint edition (May 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0765302934
- ISBN-13: 978-0765302939
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,487,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Maggie Black, a writer, inherits a house outside Tucson, Arizona, from a famous poet with whom she had corresponded, and who met a mysterious death. As she meets the local inhabitants, Maggie becomes aware of undercurrents of magic and fantasy, and that all is not as it seems.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There is high fantasy, such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, urban fantasy as admirably espoused by authors such as Charles de Lint, and this piece, which might be called rural fantasy. Windling mixes elements of Celtic myth, native American folklore, the rarified worlds of poetry and surrealistic painters with the desert setting of the area surrounding Tucson to create a well crafted work of slightly nebulous otherness, an evocation of the mystical, that will resonate with and absorb the reader.
Maggie Black, journalist and sometime poet, divorced but still somewhat in love with her high-profile musician husband, is the main character. Maggie inherits the property of Pulitzer prize winning poet David Cooper upon his mysterious death by drowning (in the desert!). With the idea of writing Cooper's biography, she goes to his home located in the hills above Tucson. Once there, she is slowly drawn into the rhythm of life in the desert, finding beauty in the landscape and the local people, and gradually finding new interpretations of Cooper's most famous poems collectively known as The Wood Wife. From this prosaic beginning, the story slowly adds elements of the fantastic, as Cooper's inspiration for the poems and his lover's surrealistically painted visions of the creatures that populate the area becomes evident.
Maggie's character is well portrayed, that of a somewhat insecure woman slowly finding her own self worth from behind the smothering light of her former husband, finding her own long-buried poetic voice, finding a way to deal with fantastic events and creatures while remaining a practical cosmopolitan woman of today's world. Cooper himself becomes a distinct voice, as we see many of the letters that he wrote when he first settled in the area and was drawn into the area's ambience. The characters of Johnny Foxxe and some of the magical creatures are not so well defined, in some cases merely sketched in for use as plot enhancers, and could have used some further development work.
The descriptive prose work is excellent - it is easy to get the feeling and mental picture of the area, people, and creatures, while at the same time things are not over-described, allowing the reader to fill in his own mental picture.
The eventual story climax is perhaps slightly disappointing, as it seemed to me to derive too many of its elements from fairly well known folk tales, and certain of those elements were really unnecessary, gratuitously added to fill out the story line. But this is a minor quibble to what is in general a very engrossing story that is quite different from the normal, well told, with a definite poetic air that is far above the typical fantasy work attempts at the evocation of faery. And there is a level of meaning beyond the straightforward story line, a fair amount of both psychology and the symbolic, that is also quite unusual in a fantasy work.
Recommended for anyone looking for something different from the standard everyday fare that fills the book racks to overflowing.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great book. Set in the modern American West but it has some great British characters too and the whole plot revolves around a murdered poet from Dartmoor. Filled with mythology, art, environmentalism, music, poetry, beautiful descriptions of landscapes and the myths of the land. If you like magical realist fiction like Robert Holdstock (MYTHAGO WOOD) and Alice Hoffman (PRACTICAL MAGIC) or modern western fiction like Barbara Kingsolver (PIGS IN HEAVEN)you will probably love this book too. The author lives in both America and England and the book has a lovely international flavour. I never knew America has so much mythology of its own before reading this book or so many beautiful wild landscapes. THE WOOD WIFE made me want to go to the Arizona desert and see it all for myself. I've never been drawn to deserts but Terri Windling makes desert mountains and canyons seem as mythic as old English woods. I loved all the Red Indian lore too and how it's mixed in together with Celtic lore, showing that stories and myths are really the same the world over and all come from the human heart no matter what the skin colour.
Warning: it's hard to find this book here in the U.K. even though it has won awards and now she has a new big book with Brian Froud. Somebody please tellthe U.K. publisher to get it back in stock!!!! I read a borrowed copy but now I want one of my own. This is the kind of book you read and then want to hand out to ten friends. I can't wait to read her next one.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I love this book, it's oe I'd grab (along with the cats) if the house was on fire. The everyday world and that of old myth cros and re-cross throughout the story. Contemporary fantasy ad magical realism at its best. Windling's characterisation is excellent, Maggie Black is very real, as are the poems. Thr dead (drunk) poet whose house and work she has inherited is fascinating too, as is the way we learn about him through letters she finds. the spirits of place of the desert who inspired him and his artist wife are very real too - infact it's hard to discern whether they are ordinarily real or not and, in the end, it doesn't amtter and your whole sense of potential and reality is enlarged.
Windling's writing stule is excellent, carries you along with a piquant amount of description that still leaves space for you to see through Maggie's eyes.
An excellent read - shame she hasn't done any other long novels for adults.
Windling's writing stule is excellent, carries you along with a piquant amount of description that still leaves space for you to see through Maggie's eyes.
An excellent read - shame she hasn't done any other long novels for adults.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The Wood Wife
This was bought for a friend. She tells me that it was very intriguing, a good read and would reccommend it.
Published 9 months ago by mazza
Simply magical
I have read and re-read this beautiful book numerous times. The style is similar to that of Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood series. Read more
Published on 2 Jun 2009 by Mrs. L. J. Philipson
magical realism, faerie myths and art
"The Wood Wife" (Terri Windling) won the world fantasy award for a good reason - it meshes magical realism, faerie myths and the artwork of Brian Froud in a strong tale of old... Read more
Published on 6 Jan 2006 by Semioticghost
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