I have very dim memories of reading this book as a child, from the Mt Hagen library, but it wasn't my favourite Elizabeth Goudge (The Little White Horse, Linnets and Valerians) and re-reading it, I can understand why I didn't return to it. In many ways, it's a gorgeous book, all about the joy and wonder of making, and a glorious mixture of myth, religion and fantasy (not unlike the Narnia books).
But... an it's a big but... there is NO STORY. The book essentially consists of a series of visits by Tabitha Silver to the Workshop, a kind of studio of Heaven where animals and flowers and trees are made -- it sounds terribly twee, but it's really not that bad... well mostly -- while she and her companions (adults reclaiming their child-selves -- oh, God, it sounds more twee than ever, doesn't it!) assemble the materials they need to build a beautiful ship.
This is the favourite childhood book of lots of people, and I can see that, at the right age, it might strike an impressionable child like nothing else. There are passages of extraordinary, lyrical beauty; wonderful tableaux; and as so often in Goudge's work, an atmosphere of ineffable joy and wonder and gratitude. But with no plot to propel it along, The Valley of Song remains a rather static hymn of praise.
I dithered over ordering this from GGB and by the time I got round to it the print run had sold out. Obviously a popular book in peoples' memories, but from reading your review I think I'm glad I haven't got the chance to reread it. I loved it as a child but I think now the religiosity and tweeness would turn my stomach!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was a bit much. I'm probably making it sound worse than it actually is! With Elizabeth Goudge, the religiosity is never far from the surface, and usually I rather like it, but this time it came out in the open and I recoiled a bit.
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