Rachel Reviews: Treacle Walker by Alan Garner

Before I discuss this book, I want to attempt to draw you in in the same way that I was.

Firstly, that title. Treacle Walker. I mean, if that's not a name to conjure with then I don't know what is.

Secondly, the cover. Don't I know by now never to judge a book by it? With all the extensive reading I've done in my lifetime? And yet...

In my defence, it is the thing that is designed to initially grab you. It's very difficult not to be sucked in.

Finally, the plaudit. Again, I know that just because someone else has judged a book worthy, doesn't mean it's going to blow my hair back but still. It's got to mean the book's worth investigating, doesn't it?

It was on beginning this book that a memory resurfaced of another Alan Garner book that I may have started to read...The Weirdstone of Brisingamen...it all came back to me. I remember wanting so much to like it because it had everything that I like: it was magical and that title spoke of myth and quest and something highly original and imaginative! And I tried to read it, really I did but I didn't complete it, I know I didn't. I didn't just stumble over his words, I tripped, falling headlong into a ditch from which I could not emerge again and my pursuit of the fiction of Alan Garner was halted.

Decades passed and here we are and I have completed this book and I did sort of enjoy it. I think I am a more determined reader now! There were hurdles to conquer, like the strange setting which isn't fully explained where a boy called Joe lives on his own and he has a lazy eye. His home's got a sort of abandoned home feel. Is he a ghost? I'm still not certain.

And the way Garner's characters talk sometimes, like a unique dialect.

But I kept going.

When Joe is visited by Treacle Walker, his life changes (due to a stone - a Garner theme?) and becomes far more filled with adventure, and his eye which was once a nuisance, becomes a magical window into things not normally seen.

I can only liken it to abstract art, the Alan Garner reading experience. You feel like you are in the presence of something which has been crafted and you know you should appreciate it on the same level as others do and yet, you just can't. You try but you can't. But for all that, you recognise the artistry.

Thankfully, it was a short book with a big font and I did appreciate the imagination and the originality. Hence, the star rating.

Rachel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars