The Stolen Child: A Novel
by Keith Donohue
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Book Summary Information
Author: Keith DonohueEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-05-09
ISBN: 0385516169
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Book Reviews of The Stolen Child: A Novel
Book Review: "Everyone has their Double Somewhere in the World..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Expectations and presumptions are dangerous things. I opened Keith Donohue's debut novel with plenty of them, and found myself disillusioned with what I found myself reading. A simple plot summary is as follows: A young changeling and his hobgoblin fellows snatch seven-year-old Henry Day and takes his place in the human world. The real Henry (henceforth known as Aniday) begins his new life as a creature of the wild, whilst the changeling (now known as Henry) copes with his sudden reintegration into the human world. The story takes us across several years of Henry's life, through childhood, adolescence, marriage and fatherhood as he struggles to discover what it means to be human. Meanwhile, stripped of his memories as a human, Aniday lives a free but harsh life among the goblins whose main occupation is waiting...waiting for their chance to re-enter the human world.
There is an interesting variation on the changeling myth at work throughout the story: Donohue imagines a group of hobgoblins, each of varying ages (based on how long they`ve *been* a goblin). They carefully scope out a potential child that can be stolen away, and it is the oldest changeling granted the honour of returning to the human world. The newfound goblin then finds himself/herself at the bottom of the ladder, required to wait until those above him find appropriate children to switch with (something that can take centuries) before they are finally allowed to attempt to return to humanity (by which stage they will have several new hobgoblins waiting in line behind *them*.)
But "The Stolen Child" failed to impress me in one crucial area. Changeling myths are marked by a mystery and a sinister feeling given that no one really knows why otherworldly forces snatch away children. Other contemporary authors have suggested for breeding purposes, or for tithes to hell, others speculate that it's simply because they *can*. Donohue doesn't give an answer. Because he has established the changeling-beings as part of a neverending cycle of reintegration and replacement, the inevitable question arises as to how this first began. Who were the first changelings? Why did they steal children? How did all this begin?
The lack of an answer was my main point of contention; not at the author, but at myself for presuming that "The Stolen Child" was something that it wasn't. The novel has often been described as "a fairytale for grown-ups". I beg to differ. The changeling element of the story is inconsequential (indeed, with the exception of their unnaturally long lives and shape-shifting, the hobgoblins could just as easily be a gang of feral children), and is important only in that it allows Donohue to set up the dichotomy and core relationship of the book: what it feels like for Henry and Aniday to live out each other's lives. Each one's experiences are told in alternating chapters (and for the record, Henry's story is the most interesting of the two, especially when he begins to investigate his human life *before* he himself was taken by the goblins) and often intersect in ingenious and alarming ways.
And just as often in rather silly ways. A woman in a red coat has a run-in with Aniday on a country road. Later she approaches Henry and insists that the young child she saw was him. Even supposing that the woman *did* manage to remember Henry/Aniday's face from a brief encounter in the darkness of the night several years ago, why would she make a scene about the incident in the aftermath of Henry's piano recital? This isn't the only stretch of credibility, and before someone objects to this on the ground that this is a fantasy novel, I remind them that Donohue bases his work heavily on realism (it far, far outweighs any `fairytale' element).
But no one can contest the fact that Donohue tells his story beautifully, as "The Stolen Child" is written in delicate prose that perfectly captures the bittersweetness - even heartrending - quality of the double-life scenario. Forgive my criticism, as the truth was I was enraptured throughout the course of the story as to what was going to happen next; and I especially loved the way that the same events were related from the entirely separate points of view of Henry and Aniday. This leaves you wondering what actually happened during any particular event and challenges you to find the truth within the opposing views. This is the real purpose of Donohue's first novel, finding the space between what-ifs and maybe-so's. If someone had told me this before I started reading, I probably would have enjoyed it to its full extent and been happier with the open-ended conclusion. Consider yourself warned, and enjoy!
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