The Apple and the Thorn (Paperback)

Average Customer Review
( [1 customer review] ) 

Share your thoughts with other customers:
 [Submit your Review] 

Most Recent Customer Reviews

A Sensuous Novel of Ancient Avalon, May 19, 2009

By Walter William Melnyk

Reviewed by Bryn Colvin, Posted by WW Melnyk I have spent the last few days reading "The Apple and the Thorn." The book is about 100,000 words in length, and I’ve read it in about four days, over one of the busiest weekends in my year – which gives some measure of how much I enjoyed it. I really didn’t want to put this down. It’s a blend of myth and fiction, exploring some familiar ideas in rather unfamiliar ways. The difficulty with reviewing this book is not wanting to give too much away. In the first few chapters, the moments of realising who some of the protagonists are, were pleasures I would not want to deny to others. Learning about the characters and watching the way their relationship changes and grows is central to the book. So what can I say? ‘The Apple and the Thorn’ brings together both Pagan and Christian myths about Glastonbury. Set around the Roman invasions of Britain, at a time when Glastonbury was marsh, water and islands rather than dry land, it’s more akin to the mystic Avalon of King Arthur than modern geography. This makes for a moody setting, fraught with dangers and possibilities. The writing is rich,luscious and intensely sensual. It’s also a story told entirely in the first person present tense, with two narrators. I found it easy to keep track of the narrators however, thanks to the differences in writing styles and voices. I think this is the first novel I’ve read entirely in the present tense, and it works surprisingly well, making the story immediate and the narrating voices intense. Having read quite a lot of Emma Restall Orr’s non-fiction, I found her fictional writing style entirely familiar, and very engaging. Her co-author – Walter William Melnyk I hadn’t encountered before, but his style compliments hers, and they pass the story back and forth between them to good effect. I cried over some of the scenes. I gaped at the computer a few times. I laughed in amusement when I realised who some of the characters were. And I’ve come away inspired,thinking about my own spiritual path, my own relationship both with the land and its stories. Highly Recommended.