Thomas the Rhymer is a worthy and beautiful novelization of the ballad, elegantly told from the perspective of four people--Gavin and Meg, the elderly couple who takes on Thomas as a surrogate son, bookend Thomas's own experience in Elfland, and the fourth by Thomas's mortal love, Elspeth, after he returns to the human world with his 'gift' of soothsaying. Kushner's language is so subtle, lyrical and magical, some passages near left me in tears. She has such a flair for words (and this book is all about that--the truth of words). I really admired the shifting perspectives, and how all four were needed as separate pieces of the puzzle to come together. The reason why I remain conflicted over the book, is because it put me through every emotion a human could feel. I'm not sure I enjoyed that feeling at all, though it attests to its power. Some parts were funny, some were unbearably painful. It hurt. I felt Thomas's anger and loneliness, living his half-life in his servitude. (Might I also add, Kushner's language also extends to some very sexy passages, particularly because they are so restrained and perfectly worded, hoo.) Some bits I reveled in the normality of country life. I felt Elspeth's chapped hands and Meg's hearty food. I can't help but come away from this book without seeing it as a tragedy. I can't see his time in Elfland except as a CURSE, shiny and glitzy, but otherwise detrimental to his humanity. I felt so much pain for Elspeth at the end, knowing he was gone, knowing he had loved others. I wanted more passion between them--I wanted it to prove that mortal love could be just as passionate as whatever Thomas had with the Elf Queen. Elspeth is certainly worthy, I loved their arguments at the beginning, but it felt like she got the short end of the stick in pretty much every way. Sigh. I also wanted more exploration of Thomas's soothsaying (and whether it was really a gift?).
On the plus side, the writing quality was good. On the bad side, there was no drive to the plot (if there was a plot).From the blurb, I’d assumed that it’d mainly be about Thomas after fairy land dealing with only being able to speak the truth, but turns out that the majority of the book is set before and during fairy land. Overall, I think Thomas the Rhymer need an injection of some conflict. There just wasn’t enough happening.The “back in the mortal earth” was the last two sections, of which the third is the one dealing with the adjustment of only being able to speak the truth. Not much is done with that, and we don’t see that many difficulties being presented there.I did not like Thomas at all in the beginning – he was a womanizer who never really seemed to care about other people. Yes, he got better in the end as a result of the stint in fairyland, but I think the truth telling should have been more of a force of change for him. What happens to a character who’s constantly lying when he’s forced to speak only the truth? Nothing significant, according to this book.I don’t think the entire last section should have been there. The end of section three seems to be the basic happily ever after, story’s done… and then there’s another section? It does do something with a detail from earlier in the book, but it still wasn’t reason enough to have an entire new section.Besides the lack of plot, it was well written, but it just wasn’t very satisfying. I wouldn’t recommend this one, unless maybe you’re a big fan of the ballad it’s based on. Otherwise, don’t bother. Pick up one of her Riverside novels instead.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
What do You think about Thomas The Rhymer (2004)?
I loved this book as much as I thought I would. The writing was wonderful and the story was as good as I always knew it would be. The description of faery was as realistic as any I have read without being lost in mysticism and wordiness. Thomas was depicted as a faulty human who retained his humanity even after 7 years in Faery. The human characters who interact with Thomas are well drawn and likeable. it reads like a true telling of an old story and I loved it. Will definitely be rereading this story many times over..
—Debi
I sincerely envy Ms Kushner's writing skills: she is a wondrous writer, she handles her language with a subtlety unheard of and still she manages to avoid any overwriting or mannerism.This story, though, is far from great. Some reviewers say it is true to the legend: should it be really so, part of the problem might lie in the original plot and yet the author could have done something to amend that.Be it as it may, her characters are exceptionally dull -except for the elderly couple- and Elfland is lushiously boring, its beautiful queen being the worst of all.The verses included are enjoyable.
—Furio
I didn't expect the matter of this book -- a bard captured by Fairyland -- to be my cup of tea. I read enough about Fairyland in high school to last the rest of my life, and I tend to think of bardic protagonists as the fantasy genre's version of writer protagonists in literary fiction -- the exception to my rule of enjoying whenever someone writes a story about their own job.However, perhaps because Ellen Kushner is a sort of bard herself, as well as a writer, I did like reading about the protagonist. And while I didn't like the protagonist very much when I first met him, I don't think I was supposed to; because this is a story about how he changes. How suitable that a beautiful man who can cause trouble and get himself out of it by his own eloquence (but who leaves others -- particularly, women who are susceptible to his beauty -- in trouble) should find himself in a situation where he's nearly powerless, (view spoiler)[at the instigation of another woman who's susceptible to his beauty, but who is so powerful that she can't be troubled by him, and can take away much of his eloquence. (hide spoiler)]
—Dorothea
