The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
I heard about The Girl With Glass Feet in this NY Times review and immediately got a copy (thanks to the good people at Henry Holt!). And while the Times’ reviewer says it much better than I can, I agree—this is truly an unusual and lovely book.
The title is literal—Ida Maclaird’s feet have turned to glass—and she has returned to the misty islands of St. Hauda’s Land to seek a cure, before the crystallization consumes her. St. Hauda’s Land, where Ida contracted her condition, is, as the Times’ reviewer points out, the land of Once upon a time. Misty, forested, populated (maybe) by unusual, magical creatures that flit among the trees—this is a place we think we recognize, but, one gets the sense, could never find on a map.
Aiding Ida in her quest is Midas, a profoundly awkward local who nevertheless possesses some kind of charm—at least, he didn’t annoy me, so there must be some sort of charm (grace?) there. Ida and Midas seek Henry Fuwa, an elusive man who seems to know the island’s secrets, and also take on the help of Carl Maulsen, a Maclaird family friend, as well as several others. The main characters’ back stories connect them all in ways that, in a normal book, would be ridiculous, but here, in this otherworldly land, it feels fated, and right. The complexities of Midas’s relationship with his father seem a bit overwrought, at times, but this is a minor complaint.
For a story about a supernatural affliction, this is a remarkably simple novel—not all that much actually happens, and the cast of characters is small. And Shaw’s writing is restrained but luminous, moving the story along crisply but pausing for moments that visually dazzle or make your heart ache.
In fact, in certain ways this reminds me of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves. Both writers seem extraordinarily gifted when describing their fictional worlds and characters, and both books rely heavily on back story for their force. But where Kostova’s book felt a little bloated, Shaw’s feels economical, giving both the story and the rhetorical beauty of his writing more weight.
When I finished this book I wished it wasn’t over, but I loved how it ended. I couldn’t agree with the Times reviewer more: “The end of the book, saturated with color and emotion, is risky and brave like the message it imparts. Only a heart of glass would be unmoved.”
The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Henry Holt & Co.
287 pages
Notes
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