This book kicked around on the floor of my study for 6 weeks, then I read it straight through, then I immediately went back & re-read big chunks. This probably ISN'T a good idea. I am a big fan of Garner (see other reviews) but there were times in VOICE when I felt by putting this series of essays together that rather than telling us stories he in fact showed us that he has just one story to tell. The same phrases keep popping up in different settings, and read all together this becomes irritating (I kept thinking "you just said that", forgetting that these were notes for talks often given several years apart). I think I would have enjoyed the collection more if I had read each essay seperately, with sufficient distance between them to allow me to miss the repetition. That being said, there is fascinating stuff here, including some very witty & pertinent comments on writing, creativity, madness, education, and response to one's critics. There is also a wonderful "look behind the scenes" at how some of Garner's books came to be. Here there may in fact be some value in the reading of the essays all at once -one can track an early-middle-age dismissal of his first two books (sorry Mr. Garner, I STILL think they are outstanding!) to an eventual coming-to-terms-and-acceptance of their value (Whew!. The discussion of STRANDLOPER is worth the price of admission by itself. SO, my copy of VOICE is now heavily read, heavily annotated & will be inflicted in parts on generations of my students and friends. Get it, read it, but my advice is savor it, this is a collection that shouldn't be rushed.

I grew up reading Tolkien and Mervyn Peake and also Alan Garner. In his fiction (much of which gets classified as for children, adolescents and young adults), he is much less wordy than those two, but often more oblique and thematically ambitious. What has always struck me about his fiction is how it can be difficult without frustrating, how it can surpass the reader without making them feel stupid.

Garner's acclaimed body of work invites multiple responses and interpretations; however, this collection of essays and autobiographical pieces will definitely help the reader to get a better grasp on how the author thinks.

I thought this book particularly insightful on the connection between artistic creativity and depression (yes, creative genius does seem to be associated with it). It was also interesting to read what an accomplished author has to say about writing for publication--yes, people struggling to write literature for publication could learn a lot from a master who has not compromised his vision yet still enjoys considerable success. Still yet another fascinating topic of discussion was the connection a writer must form between a certain place and the writing: the Manchester area and Wales serve as the geographical, historical and mythological backdrops for much of Garner's fantasy, yet a recent work successfully incorporates wilderness Australia.

If you are a fan of Garner (why not check out a title like "Red Shift" or "Strandloper" at Amazon today?) or a writer who wishes to succeed at publishing (most do!), this will prove a very valuable and insightful book.

Although he produces on average only one full-length original work of fiction a decade, Alan Garner makes up in quality what he lacks in quantity. THE VOICE THAT THUNDERS is Garner's first collection of non-fiction pieces, and they encompass a dizzying array of topics.

Garner's work is often described as dense and impenetrable, especially in light of the fact that for years his publishers marketed him as a children's author (his novel from 1967, THE OWL SERVICE, won both the Carnegie & Guardian Awards, Britain's top 2 children's book awards). Garner now disowns his first 2 children's fantasy novels, but he acknowledges that they helped him learn his craft. In THE VOICE THAT THUNDERS Garner touches upon many aspects of the writing process. Given that as a writer he shares characteristics w/ both Faulkner and Beckett it is indeed propitious for his readers when Garner explicates his own work, as he does here.

Two of the essays, "Aback of Beyond" and the title piece are a behind the scenes look at the writing of his last (and most difficult) novel, STRANDLOPER. To a slight extent, this is akin to peeping behind the curtain and seeing the Wizard of Oz for what he really is, but understanding how Garner goes about his task enhances rather than diminishes one's appreciation of his genius.

Topics that are of immense importance to Garner in his fiction are also present in his essays. These include sense of place, language, family, generational strife, Wales & the Welsh, adaptions of his work, the impact of the past on the present, classics, fairy tales, oral tradition, and the implicit tensions in being "on the edge" -- not just Alderley Edge, Garner's home in Cheshire and the dividing line between England & Wales, but being on the edge of childhood & adulthood, rich & poor, educated and illiterate. This sense of not quite fitting into either sphere, of being an outsider among his own family, is one that permeates Garner's work. THE VOICE THAT THUNDERS documents Garner's journey and his coming to terms with these dichotomies.

In addition to discussing the sources of his fiction, THE VOICE THAT THUNDERS covers a goldmine of other topics. Garner's second career as an amateur archeaologist is the subject of "Oral History & Applied Archaeology in East Cheshire." In another essay he reflects on the mail he receives from his readers. One of the most serious essays, "The Voice in the Shadows," records his bout with manic-depression. Not every writer is as interesting as Garner, but anyone that is should write such a book as this. Like his fiction, these pieces are beautifully crafted and can be read multiple times with increasing appreciation. Garner will probably not win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but it is hard to make a case for a more deserving recipient.

One reviewer has described Garner's writing as sparse but that's being too kind. Garner often leaves too much to our interpretation, going pages with dialogue only and barely telling you who's speaking. More exposition would've been appreciated in this work based on a fascinating legend.

The first sections of this book are the hardest to get through, being heavy on dialect and glimpsed only "through a glass, darkly." I almost didn't make it through this section, which is why I only give 4 stars. Both the dialect and viewpoint could have been lightened a little, to make it easier on the reader. On the other hand, I felt uncomfortably like I was seeing through the eyes of a man one step into a vast and stifling madness. There is a strangely claustrophobic feeling, because of that, which is oddly escaped in the real claustraphobic depths of a transport ship, where our hero embraces his chains on several levels. Garner warms to his subject by the time we meet these new scenes and characters. His viewpoint into the aboriginal Dreaming is utterly mythic, and is one of the most compelling visions of a culture outside of our own that I have encountered. By this point, we gain insights into the interweaving of the Dream and the Dance, that binds all visions together, and flows throughout the rest of the book.

..and perhaps the most rewarding. Definitely NOT for children of any shape or size, STRANDLOPER is an amazing experiment in writing in which Garner mixes a variety of styles and languages to tell us the story of a young man from the Midlands who gets transported "upon the seas and over the seas" to Australia in 1799. Once in Australia he escapes and is adopted by an Aboriginal tribe with whom he remains for more than thirty years before returning to his home village. The ending is sheer poetry, and will stick with me long after other details fade. This may be a tough read for some, but stick with it!

I'm a veteran of the "adult child" genre, and as I was reading this book, I found myself thinking that other books in my library covered this ground much more effectively for my taste. I found the tone of this volume somewhat simplistic and the sample person-to-person interactions a bit forced (which I suppose is the point), but that made it hard for me to relate to them or imagine myself carrying out the sample exercises.

Personally, I got a lot more out of _Adult Children of Abusive Parents_ by Steven Farmer, which deals with many of the same topics but uses far more detail and more real-life examples I could believe actually happened, and that made a big difference in whether I felt able to take the advice to heart. (Details ARE important to me, and I felt like _Lifeskills_ was light on them: My copy may be 200 pages long, but it uses a suspiciously large font and liberal line spacing -- only 28 lines to a page.)

There's also a curious convention _Lifeskills_ uses -- three small stylized icons of a man tilting back a bottle of wine, which are used as section separators! Given that many "adult children" have one or more alcoholic parents, this really made me cringe.

If you've never read any other books in this genre, this is probably an OK place to start. I just found that with some other books on this topic I'd read, I got more "bang for the buck."

"Lifeskills" is one of those books everyone should own. It deals with the personality traits inherent in those from dysfunctional families (primarily, children of alcoholics) and presents "normal" functioning skills which children of alcoholics often do not learn. Even if one is not a product of an alcoholic environment, this book gives an excellent view of healthy, "normal" responses to life's daily situations.

Alan Garner's quartet of novellas follows a working class family through four generations in Cheshire, (northern England). The stories are written in regional dialect, however, they are very accesible and enjoyable. Garner is, primarily, a writer of children's literature and it is perhaps, therefore, no surprise that his stories focus on the child characters in each generation. A little serious and quaint, however, the stories are engaging and intensely well crafted.

_The Owl Service_ is a book that has to be read twice to be understood--and a familiarity with the myth of Blodeuwedd doesn't hurt either. This novel takes place in the selfsame valley where Blodeuwedd, Lleu, and Gronw played out their tragic love-triangle in times long past, and the spirit of the conflict still haunts the valley. Every generation, the situation crops up again, with different people playing the parts, but always ending badly.

One summer, it is three teenagers who enact the old story; a young girl and her stepbrother, visiting from the city, and a local boy. At first read, it isn't clear what Alison, Roger, and Gwyn have to do with the legend of Blodeuwedd, since their situation is different on the surface. If I'd only read the book once, I might give it two and a half stars. But upon re-reading, the resonances became more apparent, and I began to see the points in the story that correspond to events in the legend.

I want to give it three and a half stars, but Amazon won't let me do that, and my grade school teachers drummed it into my head that something-and-a-half rounds up to the next whole number. *wink* So, four stars. I would have liked it better if the characters had been fleshed out more before the legend started controlling their lives; the spirit of the old conflict started turning them into unsympathetic jerks before I had a chance to develop a liking for the people they really were. Still, a decent piece of myth-based fiction.

Definitely NOT a book for most children. I read THE OWL SERVICE many years ago in part because I had enjoyed Garner's earlier books so much. I remember having nightmares afterwards, and steered clear of it subsequently. At the same time, the book stuck with me, and when I saw it in a used book shop a while ago I picked it up and re-read it. Second time through it is captivating, haunting, disturbing, and yes, very very strange. perhaps the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy autumn afternoon and find oneself going somewhere where the real and the possible somehow get turned inside out and we end... I am not sure where. I'd be reluctant to give this to other than a very mature child, but if you have one, he or she may well be entranced. I know I am.

Once upon a time, back a couple of decades ago, my family travelled to Europe, stopping in Britain on the way and picking up a lot of children's paperbacks to keep us occupied during the drive. One of these books was "The Owl Service". It is an excellent book. I read it in junior high, and again in high school, and every few years I come upon my battered copy and reread it yet again. I'm about to order a new copy to replace the old Puffin publication which now has many loose pages. This is the kind of kid's book that give presumes that they have working brains, basic intelligence, appreciate good writing. It does not talk down, does not preach or moralize, or hit you over the head with any messages. It does have real people with conflicting emotions, and a wonderful story bringing an old ancient conflict through time to the modern world. Excellent! I keep trying to get my husband to read it!

Fairy and Folk tales play an important role in developing a child's love of reading. Very young children love to experience classic nursery tales especially with such wonderful illustrations of mice, hens, cats and little brick cottages.

The Little Red Hen is a story I remember from childhood, but never heard the "end" of the story the way it is told here. In the story I remember, the little red hen had to do all the work and then ate what she made herself while everyone else went hungry. Or, at least that is the way I remember it.

This seems like two stories in one. One where the little red hen is teaching the lesson of hard work and the second of teaching that you have to be smart in all situations and be prepared.

In this story a cat, a rat and a red hen live together in a house. The cat and the rat refuse to help her with making the breakfast and so she says: "I'll do it myself." Then, she eats up the breakfast she made. So, that part of the story was what I remember.

Then, a fox enters and is carrying a wide white sack, he catches little red hen and she escapes. She puts a stone in the sack and sews it back up. The fox drops the contents of the sack down the chimney and smashes the glass cooking pot to "smithereens."

Cute story for very young children.