Lanny: A Novel

I was shopping for other books when I came across this and, while I didn't know much about it other than that it was long listed for the Man Booker and was recommended as a July read by the NY Times, I picked it up. What a treat. While I like a lot of postmodern literature, I don't usually find that the stylistic hijinks necessarily help in story telling. Not so here. Porter shows us what literature can accomplish. He sucked me in and I read this in one sitting. I strongly recommend coming to this book with no preconceptions, about its style or subject and instead let Porter surprise you. I intentionally don't want to be more precise because, at least for me, much of the pleasure I got from reading this came from my sheer bewilderment.

What an extraordinary book. Its delicate but perfect form leaves me with no real way to use my own ordinary language to describe it except to say that it's extraordinary. Beautiful. Lanny and Pete and Jolie will linger in my mind and heart, and Dead Papa Toothwort was terrifying and so much more viscerally true than our benign ideas of Mother Nature, even though both are creative forces. But nature includes death and destruction and raw urgent impersonal force and power, ideas missing from our Mother Nature construction. Part 2 was extraordinary, just the most perfect form for that part of the story, and especially coming on the heels of the ordinary narrative of Part 1. But Part 3 just kept me on the edge of my seat, reading as fast as I could but also being terrified of what I might read. Just such a wonderful, wonderful book. I'll probably read it again, and so that fifth star.

This book is set in a picturesque English village with lovely gardens but there is an undercurrent of evil that permeates the story. There is a legend in this village much like our legend of Sleepy Hollow. The book centers on a young couple and their son who is sweet and well liked but different and people don't know quite what to make of him. The boy disappears and the book focuses on the struggle to get him back. All of the characters in the book are changed by this event and it would have been interesting to find out how things would have ended up if the boy had never disappeared. I found the book to be slightly choppy to read with how it transitions between all the different characters.

I had to read and reread this novel several times in parts to make sure I was understanding it correctly. But as I got further into it and then at the end, I figured it out. Very suspenseful and cleverly laid out.

After my husband read this, I asked him what it was about and he said, I can't tell you without risking spoiling it. I now understand what he meant. It just has to be read, to be breathed in, to be rolled around the mind and savoured. It's unique and bewitching. Don't be put off by the format, just put your faith in the narrative and read on.

Max Porter's first novel, "Grief is the Thing with Feathers" is startling in its innovative ideas and techniques. "Lanny" is even more astonishing in its style, tension, delineation of character and typography. Essentially a story about an unusual boy who disappears, we are drawn into his family life, his parents' characters, that of an understanding teacher, and the spirit of the forest. As the novel develops, society is depicted in all its self-centredness, hypocrisy and bigotry. A brilliant book.

I’m not usually a fan of fantasy but this is closer to Lincoln in the Bardo than Harry Potter. Dead Papa Toothwort is a wonderful creation.Highly recommended but best not try to read it on a phone as you may struggle with the wiggly listening bits and they are well worth reading.

Well, first I should say that my husband's name is really Lanny I picked it up out of curiosity but became engrossed then mesmerized. Beautifully written.

Author: Max PorterI absolutely loved Max Porter's debut novel - 'Grief is the thing with feathers' - so my expectations were high for this book. It didn't disappoint. Just wow. Such a unique voice and style. The pages drip with lyrical language and ooze raw emotion. Porter weaves magic through the pages and is utterly spellbinding. Published by Faber and Faber (March 2019) I'd recommend this for well, everyone - although I imagine it is a little like Marmite. You will either love it or hate it but must at least try it to find out.Whilst an absolutely glorious read, this book (as with the first) did take some perseverance for me to get into. I like that. It challenges me and takes me out of my comfort zone with reading. It's all too easy to pick books we know we will enjoy and be able to read without too much dissonance. Max Porter uses techniques and language in a way I haven't experienced before so it takes a handful of pages for my brain to switch into a different way of being and then the serotonin flows. His writing is captivating and powerful - once I am 'in it' enough to be carried by it.It reminds me of the ocean - some pages roll across a shore with familiar rhythm and tidal lyricism, yet others pound and crash like violent waves that toss and tumble you under the surface. It feels vast and inspires awe. At times gasping for breath and others floating on warm salty water enjoying the view.On the surface this becomes a story about a missing boy - a boy from a rural village on the commuter belt to London - but it is also so much more. Assumptions, prejudice, relationships - with each other and the space we exist in. Folklore. Mystery. Violence.Lanny lives with his mum (Jolie - a retired actress come author) and his dad (Robert - a city worker) although it's probably fairer to say he lives mostly in his own world - of ideas, thoughts and the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort and Mad Pete I will let you find for yourselves. The book explores the overlapping lives of different villagers and centuries old beliefs about a 'green man' in their midst.Creativity is at the core of Lanny - both the main character and the book. I can't wait to go back and read it all again.

I adore this book. It is grounded in the natural world and yet supremely magical. The writing weaves a tapestry made up of branches and moss and lost wooly jumpers and leaves and bones and birds nests and bottle caps. The prose winds its way through the three parts like a stream which leads into a river.The story begins peaceful and languid, setting a calm and friendly pace as we get to know Lanny (a sweet, gentle, peculiar, and prescient boy) through his mother and father, and Pete, an old eccentric artist. The pace of the story mimics the pace of life in a small village. It's slow and comfortable. Time meanders here and we would feel safe but for Dead Papa Toothwort, a myth of the village, who creeps among its inhabitants listening in. We gets snippets of conversations as he moves through them... Some bitter, some funny, some lonely, some horny, some gentle, some jealous. He is a version of a Green Man legend and he feels quite menacing waking from the forest to judge the mortals who have lost touch with nature. But he sees Lanny and he sees the way in which Lanny connects with the natural world.As we reach Part 2, the stream has not only met a river but has hit the rapids. The writing takes off at a pace. The town is manic with fear, suspicion, grief, blame, and gossip. The snippets of voices we heard through Dead Papa Toothwort are now front and center. It's almost a stream of consciousness of the village itself as we move through all of the thoughts and emotions of the inhabitants. It is rocky and anxious and the village is no longer the safe place we came to know.Part three brings us out of the rapids into the wide, deep, cool waters of the river. It takes us into the magical world of Dead Papa Toothwort as he comes to the fore to bring us to the conclusion. The pace is slower again but not calm, not peaceful. The river here is deep and treading in the moving water takes energy but investing that engery is so rewarding. Papa Toothwort's forest is Lanny's forest. It is verdant, alive, primeval, and magnificent. It is to be admired, honoured, and respected.This book took my breath away. It is a simple story but poetic in its telling. I fell in love with the prose and with Lanny. While it may have had a tickle of the mawkish about it (I am an exceedingly cynical person), I was willing to overlook it because it's just so beautiful.Needless to say, highly recommended.

Lanny is a young boy, growing up in an ordinary village with ordinary people - underneath which Dead Papa Toothwort, an ancient burry man, lies listening to the inane conversation above.The novel is narrated from various viewpoints: Lanny’s Mum, Lanny’s Dad, and Pete, an elderly and accomplished artist. The narratives all centre around the relationship between the narrator and Lanny, leading the reader to imagine this some kind of reminiscence about the formative years of a now great man. And interspersed, we have the bored interjections of Dead Papa Toothwort who presents individual lines of conversations one might hear down the pub (somewhat irritatingly presented in word-art form that is mightily difficult to read on a Kindle).So, for the first half of then novel, we see an emerging friendship between Lanny and Pete as the old painter tries to help Lanny to develop his own artistic skills. Lanny’s parents are happy with this as it provides free childcare, allowing them to pursue their own interests (Lanny’s Mum is a crime writer and Lanny’s Dad works long hours in London).Then, half way through, Dead Papa Toothwort decides to roll the dice and make something interesting happen in the village. This, apparently, is something he is wont to do every century or so. And Lanny disappears. Fingers point, gossip spreads. People question Pete’s motives; they question Lanny’s Mum and Dad’s parenting techniques. Kids at school who ostracised Lanny start to get remorseful...There is something bucolic about the novel. It blends folk tradition with very current withering about house prices and commuting. It bears more than a passing resemblance to Reservoir 13/The Reservoir Tapes in that although Lanny is the glue that binds the story together, it is more of an observational drama about village life and personal interests.Lanny is stunningly well told; the lines drip from the page and the reader is left wanting more. The ending is almost satisfying.Booker longlisted. Surely a shoo in for the shortlist (or more?)

Max Porter's first book, Grief Is The Thing With Feathers was my favourite book of 2015.Lanny is on my list for this year.Sweet Lanny touched my heart.Now & then he stopped my breath until I remembered & let it out like a long, slow breeze.If you know magic you'll get this book in an instant. If you don't, you'll be fine because as you turn the last page, magic will attach itself to you.Not enough stars.

Lanny is an unusual reading experience. Part novel, part poetry, part collection of thoughts on life in a village, this is a novel that relentlessly records phrases while gently asserting the power of nature. There are realistic characters, Pete, an artist, Robert, a self satisfied commuter, Jolie, mother, actress and writer, and Lanny himself, ethereal boy, eccentric and unusual, the unwitting focus of people’s thoughts. There is a character who runs throughout, a presence that never fully identifies himself, ever present and eternal, manifesting himself only in the hints of nature that live at the edges of the village. Dead Papa Toothwort is a tradition, a presence to frighten children, the repository of dreams and terrors, collective memories and individual fears. The other villagers are a chorus of opinions, hints of how life could be, judgements on the aspects of life that they believe that they understand. This is a little book in some ways, but what it contains is far heavier, the weight of a boy, and the nature which appreciates and interacts with in a unique way. Written with an almost unconscious humour, Lanny is, as one character describes him “a proper human child” yet beyond definition and at the centre of a book which also defies genre boundaries, yet is burdened by a story at the heart. It is an unusual book that I was fascinated to read.The form of the book is unusual, opening with a description of the force that is Dead Papa Toothwort, moving around the edge of the village, encountering the natural elements that remain. He is big, he is tiny, and yet he is present. He is interrupted by the words, tiny phrases of the people of the village, planting, arguing, judging and so much else. Pete is an artist, self absorbed, with a mind full of past work, expressions and reactions. He is asked to teach, draw with a strange little boy with a different range of views of life and the world around him, strangely able in ways that defy description. His mother adores him, but cannot follow him, struggles to understand him, and is continually baffled by his statements. His father is also confused by him, but is not really sufficiently interested in him to even try to follow his paths of thought, or indeed the village he gladly commutes from, shutting off every day. As a mystery creeps in, the variety of reaction reveals so much, of people’s thoughts, attitudes and disbelief in anything.This is such an unique novel that while I can definitely say that I enjoyed it, found much to fascinate and think about, it is difficult to categorise. The writing is flowing, the impetus to read on is overwhelming, the emotions it captures are deep. This is a book that cannot be rushed, yet is a glimpse of a village and the people in it, the forces that shape it, rather than a linear narration of events. I recommend it as something different, providing an insight into the speech, sounds and near dreamlike quality of a place, a boy and the eternity of experience.