Books

The Wood Wife

  • Jan 17, 2021
  • Terri Windling
  • 147 responses.

The Wood Wife Maggie Black est crivain Un de ses correspondants David Cooper vient de mourir en lui laissant tous ses biens en h ritage Elle d cide de s installer dans sa maison afin de r diger sa biographie mai

  • Title: The Wood Wife
  • Author: Terri Windling
  • ISBN: 9780312859886
  • Page: 424
  • Format: Hardcover

    • Maggie Black est crivain Un de ses correspondants, David Cooper, vient de mourir en lui laissant tous ses biens en h ritage Elle d cide de s installer dans sa maison afin de r diger sa biographie, mais la maison est dans le d sert de l Arizona, l o la magie est puissante Elle devra faire attention ne pas perdre la raison, ou la vie.

    • [PDF] Download ✓ The Wood Wife | by ↠ Terri Windling
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      Posted by:Terri Windling
      Published :2020-09-13T00:23:22+00:00

    About "Terri Windling"

    1. Terri Windling

      Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults Windling has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short list for the James Tiptree, Jr Award She was also honored with SFWA s Soltice Award in 2010, a life achievement award for significant contributions to the speculative fiction field as a writer, editor, artist, educator, and mentor Windling s work has been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Lithuanian, Turkish, Russian, Japanese, and Korean.In the American publishing field, Windling is one of the primary creative forces behind the mythic fiction resurgence that began in the early 1980s first through her work as an innovative editor for the Ace and Tor Books fantasy lines secondly as the creator of the Fairy Tales series of novels featuring reinterpretations of classic fairy tale themes by Jane Yolen, Steven Brust, Pamela Dean, Patricia C Wrede, Charles de Lint, and others and thirdly as the editor of over thirty anthologies of magical fiction She is also recognized as one of the founders of the urban fantasy genre, having published and promoted the first novels of Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, and other pioneers of the form.With Ellen Datlow, Windling edited 16 volumes of Year s Best Fantasy and Horror 1986 2003 , an anthology that reached beyond the boundaries of genre fantasy to incorporate magic realism, surrealism, poetry, and other forms of magical literature Datlow and Windling also edited the Snow White, Blood Red series of literary fairy tales for adult readers, as well as many anthologies of myth fairy tale inspired fiction for younger readers such as The Green Man, The Faery Reel, and The Wolf at the Door Windling also created and edited the Borderland series for teenage readers, and The Armless Maiden, a fiction collection for adult survivors of child abuse.As an author, Windling s fiction includes The Wood Wife winner of the Mythopoeic Award for Novel of the Year and several children s books The Raven Queen, The Changeling, A Midsummer Night s Faery Tale, The Winter Child, and The Faeries of Spring Cottage Her essays on myth, folklore, magical literature and art have been widely published in newsstand magazines, academic journals, art books, and anthologies She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, edited by Jack Zipes.As an artist, Windling specializes in work inspired by myth, folklore, and fairy tales Her art has been exhibited across the U.S as well as in the UK and France.Windling is the founder of the Endicott Studio, an organization dedicated to myth inspired arts, and co editor with Midori Snyder of The Journal of Mythic Arts She also sits on the board of the Mythic Imagination Institute A former New Yorker, Windling spend many years in Tucson, Arizona, and now lives in Devon, England She is married to dramatist Howard Gayton, co director of the Ophaboom Theatre Company.

    147 Comments

    1. This is one of those wonderful, contemporary mythic novels that blurs the boundaries between reality and folklore. A writer inherits her favorite poet’s home in the middle of nowhere Arizona after he dies under mysterious circumstances. She discovers his wife’s fantastical artwork in a secret room, but when the landscape starts mirroring the art, the lines between reality and art blur. I loved the mix of folklore and art, and the setting is beautifully depicted.— Margaret Kingsburybookriot [...]

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    2. I am very fond of this book, in part because I think it is one of the few urban fantasies that include artists (and a description of their work) that makes me want to see the artwork described. I suspect it is because Windling is a painter as well as a writer, and she genuinely creates those works (even if not materially). I think she does this far better than de Lint, for example, who (though I really, really like his stories and many of his novels) peoples his writing with artists whose work I [...]

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    3. Originally slated to be one of the four premier books in the Brian Froud's Faerielands series, when that was scrapped the two books that hadn't been released were published as stand-alone fantasies and another cover artist was chosen. When the book was such a success it was again given a new cover, but the reprint wasn't nearly as pretty as the original Froud cover or the Boulet painting that was chosen.The book itself was a delight to read--I like desert of Southern Arizona best of the four loc [...]

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    4. Dreamers, cacti, wild pigs. Poets and musicians. This is the kind of book that I could have really enjoyed as a much younger person. I think in my dreamy teens, it could easily have been my gospel. I can feel that stuff about my Appalachian woods, so I can believe it of someone else's desert. But now cynical old me, it just didn't catch me in my fur, it didn't drag me out onto that star spiral and take me away across time and the canyon sky. Once upon a time I would have lived and dreamed myself [...]

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    5. Poet Davis Cooper dies, leaving his home in the Tuscon mountains to Maggie Black, his friend and protégé. As she explores his home and the mysteries of his life and death, she begins to suspect that the magic that fills Cooper's poems is not allegory but rather reflects the reality of the desert mountains. Although well written and technically accomplished, exaggerated characters and a predictable plot render the book's magic flat. The Wood Wife may satisfy some readers, but I found it disappo [...]

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    6. Enjoyed it very much. Mystical-based urban fantasy, or rater, rural fantasy, as it largely takes place in a remote area of Arizona. Although this book was enjoyable once I sat down and made some uninterrupted time for it, I found the writing occasionally sermonizing, such as when a character is making a point about wildlife being shot and poisoned under game laws, or bringing suburban housing values to rural settings. It's not that I don't agree with those values--I do--it's that it seemed to in [...]

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    7. This is good, but we just didn't connect all the way, me and this book. It probably didn't help that I thought the ex-husband was one of the most interesting characters. I don't think I was supposed to think that.

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    8. I so wanted to rate this book more highly, and I thought I would until I passed the half-way point, and then, as others have said, it just fell apart. Unfortunately, the characters are probably the weakest aspect of this book. We are told who they are, not shown. If the author has to tell you that her main character is "special," then she probably isn't. Maggie is distant, flat, contrived, smug, conceited, and pretentious. The other characters are also two-dimensional. They all seem to be "types [...]

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    9. I picked up this book because I was/am trying to read as much of the early urban/mythic fantasy books as I can get my hands on.I fell in love with Charles de Lint's Forests of the Heart early on, and after reading more of his works, decided to go for Terri Windling next, hoping for something similar in terms of both the mythic themes and the love of the desert. I was also interested in how much, if any, Windling's and de Lint's friendship may have influenced their writings. There are may common [...]

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    10. A poet leaves his Tucson house and all his work to an artist in California. She moves to Arizona, and through subsequent friendships and a romance, begins to discover the poet, his talented and disturbed wife, and the magic of the Arizona desert. Does life imitate art, or art life? Fantastic and gripping, you can actually feel the heat of the desert sun on the pages.

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    11. I read this book once a year and get something new out of it each time! For example, this past year I was pregnant & became a new mother, so I was particularly drawn to the stories of Anna Naverra (her paintings, like my poetry, being her children) & Maria Rosa (Fox's mother) this time. I often buy multiple copies to pass out to friends, family, even random strangers on the plane!

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    12. This book started out very well. It was quite interesting and the descriptions of the Southwest are excellent. The main character is well realized. Crow is well done, though the other (human) characters don't seem quite as powerful, and only Tomas is truly interesting, since the others are fairly bland. Sometimes the POV seems a bit sloppy, but them's the breaks with an omniscient narrator.My main problem with the book was all the hippyesque blabbermouthing about mysticism and art. The poetry is [...]

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    13. OK. I liked this fine. Having said that, it felt a littleropriative. Like, let's have a bunch of (white) transplants move to the desert and fall in love with its magic and beauty. Oh, and a few brown people for "local color" and to help the white people find their way.The attempts to tie it to a world of existing artists--Henry Miller, Anais Nin, a barely-disguised Frida Kahlo, Brian Froud--didn't really add to the story. It's just name dropping and "realism". As for the argument that fairy tale [...]

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    14. A terrific work of fantasy in a modern setting, drawing on vivid depictions of the landscape of the American southwest, subtly developed characters of real depth, and a dazzling imagination for surrealist art that blends seamlessly into the novel's reality.I don't want to say too much more than that, really, but speaking of "seamless," I would note that the use of a poet and his poetry in a fictional context is hard to pull off without seeming painfully contrived. That it isn't -- that the poetr [...]

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    15. I've always wanted to see the desert and now I feel as if I have actually been there. Terri Windling does a magnificent job of describing the scenery in such detail that I feel I have to sweep desert sand from my toes! Loved this book. So glad I found this at a thrift store for a quarter! Worth so much more!

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    16. Re-reading some old favorites at random this month. Really loved her ability to write magic into the real world which reminds me of Charles de Lint. However, instead of Ottawa, Windling makes the Southwest her domain. Not to be missed for anyone who loves modern fairy tales.

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    17. Let me start out by saying that this book is very definitely set in the fantasy genre. This is not a genre that I read on a full-time basis. So I would like to apologize if I offend the purists out there.On a starry night in April, a famous author named Davis Cooper drowns in the desert of Arizona. He leaves the bulk of his money and property to poet Maggie Black with whom he's had a written correspondence, but never a face to face meeting.Maggie comes to Arizona to write a biography of Davis. W [...]

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    18. I wanted to like this more than I did.It just doesn't seem to have much depth. The characters and the way that they talk reminded me more of a flat domestic romance, when I wanted it to be more of a captivating tale of magical realism.The main ingredients of a good story seem to be present, but ultimately something falls flat.I didn't really develop much sympathy for the characters either.

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    20. The cover of The Wood Wife calls it “An extraordinary tale of wild desert magic,” which is a fitting description.Floundering in life, trying to break out of a co-dependent relationship with her ex-husband, unable to maintain any other romantic relationships, and unsure what to do next with her life, Maggie Black is elated to learn that she has been left a cabin in the hills outside of Tucson. Her benefactor is the late Davis Cooper, a Pulitzer-winning poet with whom she maintained a regular [...]

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    21. This is one of those wonderful, contemporary mythic novels that blurs the boundaries between reality and folklore. I went through a phase where I only wanted my folklore in vaguely historical realms--much like the stories themselves--but lately I've begun preferring them mixed into contemporary life and living. Maybe this mirrors my own self now, a folklore lover that also works 4 jobs at a time, lives in a city, and wants to know there can still be some magic in the day to day.In The Wood Wife, [...]

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    22. Winner of the Mythopoeic Award.I really wish I hadn't read this so close to Charles DeLint's 'Memory and Dream'. It was written two years later (in 1996), and DeLint did a blurb for it, so I suppose he deserves credit - but the theme of this story is extremely similar. Both novels deal with the concept of creatures/spirits of myth and legend being given physical form through the work of contemporary artists - and the emotional angst and physical danger that this power can lead to.However, I like [...]

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    23. This novel, as delicate and hardy as any desert flora, remains the only fantasy novel I have ever encountered that accurately represents not just the ecology of the west, but the sensations of living in the desert. Most fantasy novels set in the American Southwest are just that -- something else, set down inside this environment, like a New Jersey lawn in New Mexico, out of place no matter how carefully they try to blend in. The Wood Wife, on the contrary, grew here all by itself, language born [...]

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    24. At the time I got this book I really liked the artwork of Brian Froud and as I passed by a charity shop I found this book with the illustrations done by him. It was unusual for me to read it as usually 'modern day' set books do not appeal to me, but it was actually quite good.Just looking on Wiki, this book is apparently part of Brian Froud's Faerielands series:Brian Froud's Faerielands series:"Froud also produced a collaborative series of books collectively known as Brian Froud's Faerielands. H [...]

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    25. Terri Windling is one of the editors of the very cool Fairy Tale series of books and of the Bordertown series. I really like all of those books and when I saw she had a full-length novel I grabbed it up. I love this kind of fantastical reworking of old stories.For me this book was just okay. Honestly, I think Charles de Lint has done a much better job with this kind of story (Forests of the Heart, for instance, and big chunks of Someplace to Be Flying). Ultimately he's a better writer than Windl [...]

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    26. This book of magical realism/fantasy was very much in the Charles de Lint vein - the main characters are artists, writers, and musicians and the story is about these people discovering and interacting with the magic and magical beings that exist under the surface of their surroundings. In this case, a poet named Maggie Black travels to the Arizona desert to take possession of the house and papers of recently dead fellow poet Davis Cooper, her mentor. Her intention is to write a biography of the [...]

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    27. It's always a bit of a gamble to re-read an old favourite that you haven't read in years (over a decade for me in this case). I didn't like it as much as I remember liking it which is a bit disappointing, but the same urgency was there to read it, to know what happens, the same enchantment with its mystery and spirit, the same delight in its inner folklore. I think only other aspects of the book displeased me this time around, but it still has this hold on me, perhaps because of what it represen [...]

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    28. The Wood Wife is a delightful modern visit to the ancient world of poetry and myth. The story is set just outside of Tucson, Arizona - a wild place where poetic creatures still walk in physical form. Maggie Black, an outsider, arrives and slowly learns to travel the "spiral path". In doing so, she uncovers gorgeous poetry, a troubled history, new friendship, and her true nature. Though the desert setting of The Wood Wife is specific, this is a universal and mysterious tale flooded with contradic [...]

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    29. I can't believe I missed this classic piece of mythic fiction in my reading journeys. It reminded me of Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, but while The Wood Wife has its darkness, it also has hope, which Mythago Wood seemed to lack. I'm also an occasional reader of Charles de Lint, but his characters sometimes lack the subtlety that I so enjoyed in this treatment of Southwest mythology. I never felt that things were over-explained. It's probably the best mythological treatment of a spiritual jour [...]

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    30. Just didn't do much for me. Pet-like coyotes, all sorts of wildlife consorting in such proximity to humans.at's fantasy alright, just not literary. I had a cartoonish, Disney image of this novel, although there was a stretch in the middle where I'd gotten quite engaged before it fell apart for me at the end.

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