Literary Reappearances
Dear H,
I can still remember the first time a character from a book I’d finished popped into a new book by the same author. It was a Tamora Pierce book (and if you had statistical knowledge of my reading habits around age 12 that wouldn’t surprise you, to this day she dominates the better part of two shelves in my bookcase), and Alanna, the main character in the first series, popped up in the Daine series as a significant side character. In the parlance of today’s 12 year olds, I died. This character who I loved, the one that first inspired me to reread a book in order to re-encounter her was showing up AGAIN and with NEW THINGS TO SAY. I can’t describe what kind of context and flavor that gives to a book, finding an old character living again, only that it feels like home. The author is allowed to perch the character on all of the understanding and connection that you’ve previously built. I may be exaggerating, but I’m pretty sure it’s a literary hug.
Even a cameo of a beloved character will do, but when you get a whole book about them? A book that fills in the holes left by the author’s previous books, that brings nearly double the pages to bear on that character’s backstory? That’s no longer a literary hug, that’s something like a literary ... offer to pay for college? Something that’s so nice and so overwhelming that you’re almost taken aback, but also want to immediately accept. So in Stephen King’s The Wolves of Calla, a certain character from Salem’s Lot is up and running around. And he’s up for giving backstory. He’s, frankly, better written in his second coming 28 years later. It’s not an offer to pay for college, it’s the author’s love letter to a constant reader, an unexpected payoff for the reader’s devotion.
H, I can’t remember if you’ve read Cloud Atlas. But if you have, you’d be in store for some of this author gift goodness in The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. So, you know what I’m going to say, please read it yesterday. We can talk about its richness and deep characters (with only a smattering of the overly inventive new words that science fiction is so often guilty of) and fairly mind-blowing overarching story (maybe not the one you think it’s going to be). And of course, chat about the delightful reemergence of a favorite doctor.
-T