The Griffin or the Agate

How should one describe the experience of reading The Onion Girl, Charles de Lint's latest novel of Newford? Imagine finding yourself behind the wheel of a sleek automobile with a wide-open road ahead of you. You take off, enjoying the feeling when suddenly - WHAM - you hit a speed bump. It jars you, disrupts the pleasure momentarily. After a bit more cruising, things settle back into the comfortable groove and - WHAM - another one. Why are those things there?
     Such is the problem with The Onion Girl. De Lint's city of Newford is interesting and diverse, as is the dreamworld some of his characters are able to access. The main character, an artist named Jilly Coppercorn, finds herself shattered both physically and mentally after a hit and run car accident. Or was it an accident? Soon after, her apartment is trashed, her work savaged, and Jilly becomes dangerously enamoured with her escape into the dreamworld, which allows her to slip the bonds of being the "Broken Girl" (a title used entirely too much) in the real world. Jilly's initial willingness to perhaps vacate her true body for the freedom afforded her in the alternate reality makes for compelling reading, but is dismissed too quickly for the somewhat forced plot involving the burning hatred for her borne by her long-ago abandoned sister, Raylene, back in the horror-shrouded hillbilly home of their youth. De Lint is as his strongest when he presents backstory, delving into character's pasts. Most notable is that of Raylene, whose combination of ambition, anger, and opportunism make her a dangerous and unpredictable foe.
     Less impressive is de Lint's work in the present tense. Dialog is often stilted, artificial, and cloying. His device of interspersing transcripts from interviews with Jilly also fails to ring true, and Raylene's accent dialect seems to fluctuate more than one might think humanly possible. Still, while the work has flaws, The Onion Girl is worth a look. Just be prepared to believe that a young woman who paid zero attention in school and talks like Gomer Pyle can write computer programs and blames her life on a sister who, at age ten, ran away and didn't come back. Suspend belief. Mental gymnastics are good for you.  §

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