Liam
Administrator
The Girl Green as Elderflower is a short novel (or novella) completed by Stow in 1980, after nearly fourteen years of writing. On the surface, it is the tale of a British expatriate who returns to his home-county of Suffolk after a nervous breakdown (which almost ends in suicide) somewhere in the Pacific (a non-specified location but probably Malaysia or Indonesia). Unable to overcome his depression and thoughts of worthlessness in any other way, he turns to writing and produces a string of thematically interconnected stories (or, rather, beginnings of stories, à la Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler...).
Meanwhile, he forms friendships and lasting connections with the people around him, including a visiting American priest and a long-forgotten schoolfriend who is both Jewish and gay. The book's plot is actually quite uneven and somewhat pointless (which is perhaps the point)--the action never seems to get anywhere, people come and go, appear and disappear, there are some lengthy and lush descriptions of nature, and then... the end. What makes the novel interesting is the local folklore that forms the backbone of the story; interesting, lyrical, poetic language; and a kind of quiet resolve to simply go on living even in the face of existential angst.
The folklore bits include tales about a silent (and possibly homosexual) merman, two mysterious green children emerging from the earth (with green skin, green eyes and green hair), and a mischievous sprite (the soul of a departed child) who talks in Latin and hopes to be reunited with her mother (who hates her).
In the end, TGGAE is nothing earth-shattering, but you will feel becalmed after the closing chapter; because the book is so short and lyrical, and because so little happens in it, it has the effect of a soft lullaby on the reader. Even if you end up not being impressed with the writing, you will not regret reading it (it will probably only take you a day or two). However, if you do end up liking it, bear in mind that this is a very atypical book for Stow, who is mostly known for his political and war allegories (To the Islands, Visitants, etc). I think he just wanted to collect and use as much Suffolk folklore in a book as he could, and with TGGAE he finally got his chance.
Meanwhile, he forms friendships and lasting connections with the people around him, including a visiting American priest and a long-forgotten schoolfriend who is both Jewish and gay. The book's plot is actually quite uneven and somewhat pointless (which is perhaps the point)--the action never seems to get anywhere, people come and go, appear and disappear, there are some lengthy and lush descriptions of nature, and then... the end. What makes the novel interesting is the local folklore that forms the backbone of the story; interesting, lyrical, poetic language; and a kind of quiet resolve to simply go on living even in the face of existential angst.
The folklore bits include tales about a silent (and possibly homosexual) merman, two mysterious green children emerging from the earth (with green skin, green eyes and green hair), and a mischievous sprite (the soul of a departed child) who talks in Latin and hopes to be reunited with her mother (who hates her).
In the end, TGGAE is nothing earth-shattering, but you will feel becalmed after the closing chapter; because the book is so short and lyrical, and because so little happens in it, it has the effect of a soft lullaby on the reader. Even if you end up not being impressed with the writing, you will not regret reading it (it will probably only take you a day or two). However, if you do end up liking it, bear in mind that this is a very atypical book for Stow, who is mostly known for his political and war allegories (To the Islands, Visitants, etc). I think he just wanted to collect and use as much Suffolk folklore in a book as he could, and with TGGAE he finally got his chance.
