Thomas the Rhymer

Rating:
Summary: Recommended to me? now I'll recommend it to you!
Review: "Thomas the Rhymer" came highly recommended to me by the lady who hosted our role-playing group. It's of a genre that I'd never read before.

This is a fantastical tale told in the points of view of the Rhymer's hosts, his human wife, and himself. Of a Ren-Faire setting, its descriptions are fluid and visible to the reader. It's a story of many kinds of love -- the love of the Rhymer's childless hosts of the Rhymer and of the girl up the hill, and of the Rhymer of them, of the girl, and of the Elfin Queen who cannot love him back in a way that he understands. It's a tale of human growth, of restraint, of sadness, and of joy.

I will be looking for more books by Ellen Kushner, and I highly recommend "Thomas the Rhymer" to you.

Rating:
Summary: Recommended to me¿ now I'll recommend it to you!
Review: "Thomas the Rhymer" came highly recommended to me by the lady who hosted our role-playing group. It's of a genre that I'd never read before.

This is a fantastical tale told in the points of view of the Rhymer's hosts, his human wife, and himself. Of a Ren-Faire setting, its descriptions are fluid and visible to the reader. It's a story of many kinds of love -- the love of the Rhymer's childless hosts of the Rhymer and of the girl up the hill, and of the Rhymer of them, of the girl, and of the Elfin Queen who cannot love him back in a way that he understands. It's a tale of human growth, of restraint, of sadness, and of joy.

I will be looking for more books by Ellen Kushner, and I highly recommend "Thomas the Rhymer" to you.

Rating:
Summary: This is what fairy stories should be like.
Review:
True Thomas lay on Huntlie Bank
A fairy he spied with his e'e
And there he saw a lady bright
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree

So begins one of the finest of the border ballads -- the long tale of Thomas the Rhymer and how he spent seven years living under the Eildon Hills as the queen of Elfland's lover.

The book retells Thomas's story in the words of three people who loved him and, for the interlude in Faerie, in Thomas's own words. And what a story it is. Kushner knows her stuff and she has other ballads move across the surface of her story and are woven into it, giving it a depth that a straightforward retelling would not have.

If you do read this, and you should, do yourself a favour and find someone to read it aloud to. You may think you're too old for that sort of thing, but if you don't then you're missing out. The book comes alive as you read it aloud, things that look strange on the page sound wonderful in the mouth, and the voices of the four storytellers become more distinct, bringing them to life.

I have a small confession to make: I'm probably a little biased about this book because it was the book my wife and I read to each other when we first met. The memory of that fine time is inextricably bound with this book, but that said I thought it was wonderful before I met her, and I'm still of that opinion.

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful book!
Review: A splendid, warm prose retelling of the "Thomas the Rhymer" ballad, informed by all the many versions, but also wonderfully filled out by Kushner's imagination and understanding of her characters. The shifting narrative, from four individual perspectives, seemed initially distancing, but works successfully and allows a fuller view of True Thomas. Once it passes to Thomas himself the narrative is breathtakingly beautiful, with the elegance and lyricism of the text making re-reading rewarding (very unusual). The Queen of Elfland is a magnificent creation, full of ambiguities: just gorgeous! Reading this book reminded me of the pleasure of reading Beagle or Dunsany (at his best), but it is unique and lovely in a completely individual way. The overall contemplation of mortality is poignant. I was sorry to finish reading this the first time!

Rating:
Summary: Lyrical, Yes, But Otherwise...
Review: Actually, I would give this book one star or none at all, but the writing is so beautiful, and the "supporting" cast in the real world is wonderful.

However, I truly did not like the land of faery, I did NOT like the Faery Queen, and Thomas himself annoyed the hell out of me for the majority of the novel. The arrogance of Thomas and his obvious lack of love for his human wife (a wonderful character) completely spoiled this book for me. The elderly couple with whom Thomas occaisionally lives are likewise wonderful, but they cannot save the novel.

The Queen of Faeries is just as irritating as Thomas is, and the faery court is a melee of cruel, heartless creatures. In the end, Thomas may have been given the dubious gift of truth, but he has not found the gift of wisdom. Yuck. Without the supporting characters in "our" world and the inherent beauty and subtlety of Kushner's writing style, this book would not be worth reading. Unless you enjoy arrogant, irritaing, contradictory, selfish, and ultimately unchangeable characters.

Rating:
Summary: A truely magic-full novel
Review: An enchanting tell of a mans sucess in two different worlds and the price he pays in both. A book worth reading more than one time .

Rating:
Summary: Another world, another time -- and that's the truth
Review: Ellen Kushner has used an old ballad to create a fascinating and lovely tale of a young harpist and singer. Thomas appears one day at the door of an older and childless couple in the country who take him in and begin to love him as a son. He in turn, loves and respects them, all the while finding himself fascinating to and fascinated by a neighbor girl whose fiery temperament charms him. Off and on he reappears, leaving behind the courts of the nobility where he sings and plays for their pleasure.

One day, while visiting his friends, he wanders onto Eildon Hills and meets the queen of the faeries. She takes him with her to her home where he abides for 7 years. He becomes her lover, her plaything, and a challenge to others in the land, because he is forbidden to speak to anyone except the queen. Having fulfilled his bargain, the queen returns Thomas to his own world, burdened with a terrible gift: He can only speak the truth.

Told by Gavin, the elderly farmer, Thomas, and the girl whom he marries upon his return, the story of the life of True Thomas unwinds almost as a song does. There is melody, harmony, and many verses. For those who come to believe, the end will bring tears to their eyes.

Readers who enjoy this book might also enjoy Kushner's earlier novel, Swordspoint. She does not write often, but she writes well.

Rating:
Summary: Another world, another time -- and that's the truth
Review: Ellen Kushner has used an old ballad to create a fascinating and lovely tale of a young harpist and singer. Thomas appears one day at the door of an older and childless couple in the country who take him in and begin to love him as a son. He in turn, loves and respects them, all the while finding himself fascinating to and fascinated by a neighbor girl whose fiery temperament charms him. Off and on he reappears, leaving behind the courts of the nobility where he sings and plays for their pleasure.

One day, while visiting his friends, he wanders onto Eildon Hills and meets the queen of the faeries. She takes him with her to her home where he abides for 7 years. He becomes her lover, her plaything, and a challenge to others in the land, because he is forbidden to speak to anyone except the queen. Having fulfilled his bargain, the queen returns Thomas to his own world, burdened with a terrible gift: He can only speak the truth.

Told by Gavin, the elderly farmer, Thomas, and the girl whom he marries upon his return, the story of the life of True Thomas unwinds almost as a song does. There is melody, harmony, and many verses. For those who come to believe, the end will bring tears to their eyes.

Readers who enjoy this book might also enjoy Kushner's earlier novel, Swordspoint. She does not write often, but she writes well.

Rating:
Summary: Magical and Beguiling
Review: Ellen Kushner takes a traditional Scottish ballad and weaves it into something magical and beguiling in this lovely, haunting tale. The ballad sings of a minstrel lad abducted to Elfland for seven year's to serve as the Elf Queen's lover, then returned to the mortal world with the "gift" of always speaking the truth. Kushner deepens the focus of the story and humanizes the characters. Thomas is a footloose and carefree young minstrel and gifted seducer of willing ladies, eager to win fame for his singing and harping. His sojourn in Elfland is conveyed in dazzling prose, rich with the heady, heedless abandon of youth as Thomas gives himself up to the quicksilver Elf Queen and the succulent delights of her bower. Yet, he is tormented, too, by her small, careless cruelties, by the elves' constant game-playing, and by his lonely isolation as a mortal in a magical realm. He is scarcely any less isolated when he finally returns to mortal "Middle-Earth," a more sober and compassionate man, hailed as both rhymer and prophet, but who never again quite feels in step with his fellow beings.

While Thomas' Orpheus-like descent into the eerie glamor of the Elvish underworld is the centerpiece of the story, Kushner provides humanistic grace notes in the characters of a down-to-earth farm couple who love Thomas like a son and help to tell his story. They are joined by another narrator, the wild-spirited but careworn country lass who wins young Thomas' heart and witnesses the bittersweet epiphany of the story's conclusion. Both fairy tale and love story, full of lusty balladeering, poetry and heartbreak, this novel is truly enchanting. I felt bereft when it was over, as if the portals of Elfland had been shut behind me forever.

Rating:
Summary: An Elegant Story
Review: Ellen Kushner's novel read much like an old ballad. It is not a grand epic, but a lovely story about the border between here and fairie. The phrasing was beautiful. It was written with great skill. I highly recommend it.