Fire and Hemlock

Author: Diana Wynne Jones

Age: YA

I've been doing two things with this blog--I've been reading new books (new to me and recently published) and I've also been re-reading some of my old favorites so that I can introduce them to you. This has been really fun, because I've been reading some that I haven't read in years and years, and rediscovering what I liked about them. Fire and Hemlock is one of these books.

Polly is packing to go back to college after summer break when she gets distracted (as so often happens when one is packing) by an old book of short stories. But what's weird is that it seems like the book had different stories the first time she read it, years ago. Also, there's the photograph called "Fire and Hemlock" that's always hung on her bedroom wall--did it always look exactly like that? The more Polly thinks, the more confused she gets--why are her memories so muddled? Does she really have two different sets of memories?

As Polly struggles to remember, we travel with her into her second set of memories, back to when she was ten and accidentally crashed a neighbor's funeral on Halloween. There she met the mysterious Thomas Lynn. Over the next few years, Polly's parents divorce and her world falls apart. Mr. Lynn is one of the few constants in her life, a friend and a sort of mentor. He and Polly make up stories together about a hero named Tan Coul and his assistant, Hero. They're just having fun--until the stories start to come true. To make things even more complicated, Mr. Lynn's ex-wife, Laurel, and her new husband, Mr. Leroy, exert some strange and sinister control over him, and for some unknown reason they are desperate to keep him and Polly apart. In fact, whenever Polly and Mr. Lynn see each other, or contact each other in any way, something bad happens to one or both of them.

Back in the present, Polly realizes that Mr. Lynn does not exist in her first set of memories. How could she have forgotten someone who was so important to her? Did he really exist, or did she just imagine him? And if he is real, how can she find him again?

Diana Wynne Jones is one of my favorite authors. I didn't discover her until I was a teenager, and I'm sorry I didn't find her sooner because she mostly writes children's books and I would have loved to grow up with them. This book is rather different than her usual, however--for one thing, it's for teens, and for another, it's not her typical set-in-another-world sort of fantasy. There are some strange/magical doings sprinkled throughout this book, but for the most part it's a story about the real world, about growing up in a dysfunctional family and the horribly murky, awkward time that is early adolescence. This is one of my very favorite Jones books.

It's also one of the strangest books I've ever read--but that's not a bad thing. Jones' books are usually more complex than they appear on the surface, and they're very heavily based in myth (all sorts of myth, not just the standard Greco-Roman gods). After I finished reading this book, I found an essay of hers about this book specifically and about her literary background (which is extensive) in general. You should definitely read it (see the link at the bottom) after you finish this book, and in fact if you've ever read anything of Jones' you should read it because it will enhance your appreciation and understanding of her work.

In addition to all the mythological themes, it's also a book about memory--always a strange and ethereal thing, but even more so when it comes to childhood memories because, in addition to the passage of time, childhood memories are clouded by the fact that children do not always fully understand what's going on around them. It's always tricky to delve back into that time and try to make sense of it all from an adult perspective, even if your memories haven't been magically altered.

One more thing--(spoiler alert, except not really, because I think it's kind of obvious) if you're bothered by the sort of books where a girl ends up falling in love with an older man who she's known since she was a child (as so often happens in Tamora Pierce, for instance), then this may not be the book for you. Nothing inappropriate happens between Tom and Polly, but it is still kind of weird. Fortunately Tom is darling and Polly is darling, so you really will be rooting for them at the end. Also, the cover art is really weird. The man on the cover definitely looks like a pedophile. That is emphatically NOT what Tom looks like. Tom is very handsome. I'm not saying this solely because I have a crush on him. It says so in the book. But it takes a while to get to it (Polly doesn't think about it when she's a little kid), so I'm telling you in advance to be sure to picture him as hot the entire time.

Links to Jones' essay:
(Note: It took me a long time to find an actual working link for this, so if it stops working let me know because I've also saved the essay on my computer.)

http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal1.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal2.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal3.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal4.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal5.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal6.gif
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/kyla/Heroic_Ideal7.gif

Recommended for readers who like: Tamora Pierce; Howl's Moving Castle; White Oleander; A Great and Terrible Beauty; Wake; mythology; books about dysfunctional families and complex mother-daughter relationships

Other good books to start with, if you're new to Jones: The Dalemark Quartet (first book Cart and Cwidder) -- these were my first introduction to her writing; The Chrestomanci series (first book Charmed Life) -- probably my favorite Jones series.