The Onion Girl
Charles de Lint
(Reviewer - Kate Holmes)
2001 Tor Books
ISBN: 0312873972
Crippled in a hit-&-run, a young artist must face her life anew in Newford.
At the center of all the entwined lives of Newford lives a young artist named Jilly Coppercorn, with her tangled hair, her paint-spattered jeans, a smile perpetually on her lips -- Jilly, whose paintings capture the hidden beings that dwell in the city's shadows.
“I'm the onion girl,” Jilly Coppercorn says. “Pull back the layers of my life, and you won't find anything at the core. Just a broken child. A hollow girl.” She's very, very good at running. But life has just forced Jilly to stop.
Associate reviewer Kate Holmes writes:
Jilly Coppercorn is one of the most loved central characters in the extensive collection of fantasy stories Charles de Lint has penned, set in an imaginary town that lies somewhere in North America. In The Onion Girl, her creator peels back the layers, recalling the sometimes horrific, sometimes poignant moments in her life.
Following an accident that lands Jilly in a hospital with near total paralysis, strange things begin to happen around her that she has no way of investigating. Falling into depression, she choses to spend as much time as possible in the “dreaming lands,” where she is whole once again.
It is now that Raylene emerges from Jilly's past. Raylene is a disturbed woman, out for revenge against an older sister who escaped the abusive home in which they were raised, leaving her behind.
The many characters in The Onion Girl, human & non-human friends of Jilly's are the folk of Charles de Lint's urban myths. An excellent place to begin or end up, The Onion Girl is the crowning glory of the Newford Stories, & a most warm introduction to this community of strange & wonderful characters.
On a personal note, the Newford Stories of Charles de Lint, whether in a novel or an anthology, have made me laugh & cry, & even comforted me, like chocolate ice cream. Jilly Coppercorn's story desperately needed to be told. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!
Reviewer's Bio
She is a Canadian wife, mother, grandmother, & avid reader. She has hungered for knowledge her whole life which has led her to haunt her local library & used book stores, looking for “old friends.” She has several bookshelves over which presides a print of Amergin, an ancient wizard from Celtic myth.
A welcome addition to her study, Della, her computer (named for its maker), has become a large part of her world. For some time Kate Holmes reviewed for another ezine, & as a means of giving herself a more varied reading experience, has joined RebeccasReads as a Associate Reviewer.
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