Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis

Random thoughts, think, think, don't emerge from your mind, just concentrate. Haven't most of us done this when we were trying to avoid some other thought or action? This is the feeling I got when I first started reading this mystical, entertaining, yet odd book. I was uncertain where it was going, or perhaps especially, where it was coming from. That said, there is a story here, three young girls on the threshold of leaving childhood, a unique small town population, a church, beavers, a dog, and an unexpected mystic healer are enfolded in this book, not to mention mystery, drama, death and life. The main theme is probably that of how people relate to each others and to themselves.

In between the segments of the story of the girls are bits and pieces of small-town or rural lives and how such lives are intermingled with each other as well as the forests and animals. I really got into it fairly quickly and found myself wrapped up in life in the thin space. The author works on a different plane than the average writer, and this is what makes the story interesting and totally unexpected. A difficult book to review because it is so different. Somehow for that reason, I feel I may not have done justice to Kathryn Davis; I keep feeling compelled to read it again, I think I will get a lot more out of it in reading it again. The book has many layers, and a twist at the end. As of my first reading, I give it 4 stars.

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