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Six-year-old Lily Newman accompanies her mother, Charlotte, on a late-summer visit to her Aunt Beth's sheep farm in the middle of wild Welsh countryside. Beth, whom Charlotte considers to have greatly disappointed their parents by marrying a humble carpenter, now lives with her son and triplet daughters, her husband having died two years earlier.
While staying on the farm, Lily becomes fixated with a fairy tale her cousins make up about a Mushroom Man and vanishes one morning into the nearby forest. The adults suspect an abductor, while the children wonder if, indeed, their story about the Mushroom Man and his invisible-making powers has come true. As each group pursues their own solutions, relationships are strained and carefully constructed facades come crumbling down.
With sparkling prose, The Mushroom Man explores the fine border between reality and myth, and introduces Sophie Powell as a wry and sophisticated new talent in fiction.
Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2003
I can't say enough about how beautifully written this book is. All lovers of language are going to be bowled over by truckload of talent in this new novelists first book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2003
Okay, first of all, I love books where the writer tells the story from the perspective of a wide-eyed kid, and this book is one of them. A lot of parts made me snicker, so much so, that people on the subway thought I was a little weird. This is a very tight piece full of all respectful nods to the preceding tradition of imagination in something like C.S. Lewis, but at the same time, it has some wickedly funny and satirical scenes with adults bickering about sex and marriage. She definately gives a lot of color to these British folk.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2003
The language that Powell exhibits in telling this story never once loses it's streak of absolute cool. She has her way with words, and her words have their way with the reader. I've never laughed so much reading this book. The characters are like something out of the Simpsons, except that they're far more intelligent and complex--and they're British. I can't describe the wonderful stretches Powell makes, and the humor that just has you bending over snorting out laughs. You just have to read this and see what I mean.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 20, 2003
The language in this book is amazing! She's like Virginia Woolf and Dylan Thomas rolled into one--except that she also makes a lot of sense. She never ditches the reader and makes a nice accessible bridge to her wonderful world where characters make you laugh out loud and roll on the floor. The words just jump around like oil in a frying pan. I was thoroughly impressed by this new novelist, and I think we'll hear more about her with future books to come.
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Overview
Six-year-old Lily Newman accompanies her mother, Charlotte, on a late-summer visit to her Aunt Beth's sheep farm in the middle of wild Welsh countryside. Beth, whom Charlotte considers to have greatly disappointed their parents by marrying a humble carpenter, now lives with her son and triplet daughters, her husband having died two years earlier.
While staying on the farm, Lily becomes fixated with a fairy tale her cousins make up about a Mushroom Man and vanishes one morning ...