Lanny: A Novel

Max Porter's first novel, "Grief is the Thing with Feathers" is startling in its innovative ideas and techniques. "Lanny" is even more astonishing in its style, tension, delineation of character and typography. Essentially a story about an unusual boy who disappears, we are drawn into his family life, his parents' characters, that of an understanding teacher, and the spirit of the forest. As the novel develops, society is depicted in all its self-centredness, hypocrisy and bigotry. A brilliant book.

I’m not usually a fan of fantasy but this is closer to Lincoln in the Bardo than Harry Potter. Dead Papa Toothwort is a wonderful creation. Highly recommended but best not try to read it on a phone as you may struggle with the wiggly listening bits and they are well worth reading.

What an extraordinary book. Its delicate but perfect form leaves me with no real way to use my own ordinary language to describe it except to say that it's extraordinary. Beautiful. Lanny and Pete and Jolie will linger in my mind and heart, and Dead Papa Toothwort was terrifying and so much more viscerally true than our benign ideas of Mother Nature, even though both are creative forces. But nature includes death and destruction and raw urgent impersonal force and power, ideas missing from our Mother Nature construction. Part 2 was extraordinary, just the most perfect form for that part of the story, and especially coming on the heels of the ordinary narrative of Part 1. But Part 3 just kept me on the edge of my seat, reading as fast as I could but also being terrified of what I might read. Just such a wonderful, wonderful book. I'll probably read it again, and so that fifth star.

This book is set in a picturesque English village with lovely gardens but there is an undercurrent of evil that permeates the story. There is a legend in this village much like our legend of Sleepy Hollow. The book centers on a young couple and their son who is sweet and well liked but different and people don't know quite what to make of him. The boy disappears and the book focuses on the struggle to get him back. All of the characters in the book are changed by this event and it would have been interesting to find out how things would have ended up if the boy had never disappeared. I found the book to be slightly choppy to read with how it transitions between all the different characters.

I loved this book. It is original, beautiful, and written with spare beauty like a poem. It is based around a special little boy but through the voices of those around him, his parents, friend, the village and the spirit of the earth. It is about history, humans and their impact on nature, families, and the magic of childhood. Don't expect a simple linear narrative but let the words flow around you, it is worth it.

Lovely, beautiful, scary, stressful, wonderful. It flows so delightful, before you know, you find yourself at the end loving it.

After my husband read this, I asked him what it was about and he said, I can't tell you without risking spoiling it. I now understand what he meant. It just has to be read, to be breathed in, to be rolled around the mind and savoured. It's unique and bewitching. Don't be put off by the format, just put your faith in the narrative and read on.

I had to read and reread this novel several times in parts to make sure I was understanding it correctly. But as I got further into it and then at the end, I figured it out. Very suspenseful and cleverly laid out.

Un bambino fatto per le fate e per chi abita la terra e la foresta da prima che l'uomo mettesse piede sulle isole britanniche. Una mamma casalinga barra "vorrei essere una donna di successo ma eccomi qui". Un padre altrove, sempre altrove nel cuore, negli affetti, un non padre, una patetica scusa di padre fatto di lavoro pendolare e aridità. E un amico-maestro. E una vecchia, vecchissima vicina che sa chi abita quelle terre da prima che l'uomo vi mettesse piede. Scritto in una lingua ricca e corposa, un inglese quasi fisico e carnoso. Fiume e pioggia e slavina e ruscello. E foglie e rami come braccia e corteccia per pelle e petali di labbra e bacche dure per denti: lo spirito della terra incontra il bambino. #lanny #maxporter #deadpapatoothwort #lannygreentree #scrivere #scrittura #leggere #lettura #libro #instabook #englishbook #literature #masterpiece #narrazione #narrativa #forest #spirit #trees #leggerebene #capolavoro #libri #griefisthethingwithfeathers

It’s a must read.

I adore this book. It is grounded in the natural world and yet supremely magical. The writing weaves a tapestry made up of branches and moss and lost wooly jumpers and leaves and bones and birds nests and bottle caps. The prose winds its way through the three parts like a stream which leads into a river. The story begins peaceful and languid, setting a calm and friendly pace as we get to know Lanny (a sweet, gentle, peculiar, and prescient boy) through his mother and father, and Pete, an old eccentric artist. The pace of the story mimics the pace of life in a small village. It's slow and comfortable. Time meanders here and we would feel safe but for Dead Papa Toothwort, a myth of the village, who creeps among its inhabitants listening in. We gets snippets of conversations as he moves through them... Some bitter, some funny, some lonely, some horny, some gentle, some jealous. He is a version of a Green Man legend and he feels quite menacing waking from the forest to judge the mortals who have lost touch with nature. But he sees Lanny and he sees the way in which Lanny connects with the natural world. As we reach Part 2, the stream has not only met a river but has hit the rapids. The writing takes off at a pace. The town is manic with fear, suspicion, grief, blame, and gossip. The snippets of voices we heard through Dead Papa Toothwort are now front and center. It's almost a stream of consciousness of the village itself as we move through all of the thoughts and emotions of the inhabitants. It is rocky and anxious and the village is no longer the safe place we came to know. Part three brings us out of the rapids into the wide, deep, cool waters of the river. It takes us into the magical world of Dead Papa Toothwort as he comes to the fore to bring us to the conclusion. The pace is slower again but not calm, not peaceful. The river here is deep and treading in the moving water takes energy but investing that engery is so rewarding. Papa Toothwort's forest is Lanny's forest. It is verdant, alive, primeval, and magnificent. It is to be admired, honoured, and respected. This book took my breath away. It is a simple story but poetic in its telling. I fell in love with the prose and with Lanny. While it may have had a tickle of the mawkish about it (I am an exceedingly cynical person), I was willing to overlook it because it's just so beautiful. Needless to say, highly recommended.

Este escritor es una joya.

A skilled and intricately drawn portrait of the fraught emotions and imaginations of the parents and village when a little boy, Lanny, disappears. Like wandering ghouls, people’s worst fears, prejudices and potty ideas take shape, in the agonizing days waiting and searching for the boy. These ghouls prey even on the reputation of Lanny, a whimsical and creative child, who walks to the time of a different drum - always a dangerous past-time. And the Green Man arises, in a different guise. Beautifully written, with an immediacy that is stunning.