The Very Best

I first encountered Charles De Lint several years ago when I started spotting his books on the shelves of the local bookstore. The covers looked interesting, but I shied away as I have always been less interested in fantasy than science fiction and even less interested in serial fantasy (due to the "where to start" problem).

I then came across an interview with him in an episode of Rick Kleffel's The Agony Column (see here, page down to the September 4, 2003). Interesting stuff, I thought.

So when I came across two books that did not appear to be part of any particular series, I gave them a try. And was hooked.

I picked up several more volumes, mostly short story collections or novels about Del Lint's fictional setting of Newford. The first of those that I've started to read is this "best of" collection, or rather a "very best of" collection.

"Who is he?" she asked. "Or maybe should I be asking what is he?"

"I've always thought of him as a kind of anima,"Jilly said. "A loose bit of myth that got left behind when all the others went on to wherever it is that myths go when we don't believe in them anymore."

"That's sort of what he said. But what does it mean? What is he really?"

Jilly shrugged. "Maybe what he is isn't so important as that he is." At Wendy's puzzled look, she added, "I can't explain it any etter. I...look, it's like it's not so important that he is or isn't what he says he is, but that he says it. That he believes it."

"Why?"

"Because it's just like he told you," Jilly said. "People are losing touch with themselves and with each other. They need stories because they really are the only thing that brings us together. Gossip, anecdotes, jokes, stories—these are the things that we used to exchange with each other. It kept the lines of communication open, let us touch each other on a regular basis.

"That's what art's all about, too. My paintings and your poems, the books Christy writes, the music Geordie plays—they're all lines of communication. But they're harder to keep open now because it's so much easier for most people to relate to a TV set than it is to another person. They get all this data fed into them, but they don't know what to do with it anymore. When they talk to other people, it's all surface. How ya doing, what about the weather. The only opinions they have are those that they've gotten from people on TV shows. They think they're informed, but all they're doing is repeating the views of talk show hosts and news commentators.

"They don't know how to listen to real people anymore."

(Charles De Lint, The Conjure Man, The Very Best of Charles De Lint)

That quote there, coming in the middle of one of the many fine tales in this collection, seems to best sum up the theme behind many of the stories in this collection. De Lint writes "fantasy" and we have magical creatures popping up but in reality the stories are about relationships, people, caring and the like.

A very nice mix between the Newford tales and a few other linked sets, plus a number of independent stories.

Regarding the opening sentence of my review, well, I read a lot more fantasy than I used to. I rate Tim Powers among my all time favorites. Peter S. Beagle and Gene Wolfe are up there as well. Tha new guy, Neil Gaiman, can turn an occasional good phrase. De Lint is among the ranks of such of these.

The Very Best of Charles De Lint; Charles De Lint; edited by Jill Roberts (Tachyon Publications; 2010; ISBN 978-1-892391-96-4; cover by Charles Vess).

Made up of: Introduction; In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn; Coyote Stories; Laughter in the Leaves; The Badger in the Bag; And the Rafters Were Ringing; Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood; The Stone Drum; Timeskip; Freewheeling; A Wish Named Arnold; Into the Green; The Graceless Child; Winter Was Hard; Conjure Man; We Are Dead Together; Mr. Truepenny's Book Emporium and Gallery; In the House of My Enemy; The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep; Crow Girls; Birds; Held Safe By Moonlight and Vines; In the Pines; Pixel Pixies; Many Worlds Are Born Tonight; Sisters; Pal O'Mine; That was Radio Clash; Old Man Crow; The Fields Beyond the Fields.

Counts as 30 entries in the 2011 Year in Shorts.