ACHUKAreviews

  • Back to main ACHUKA page…

Clay

November 29, 2005 By achuka Leave a Comment

David Almond

Hodder

184509487X

Nov 2005

Since Counting Stars (a short story collection that can be viewed as a ‘Dubliners’ of the North-East), David Almond’s fiction has been set in the time of his own childhood, growing directly out of experiences he had as a young boy. In some ways there is a marked difference between this latest novel and early books like Skellig and Kit’s WIlderness. But the similarities are there too: the immaculate writing; the strange, mysterious individual, possessor of special powers, at the fulcrum of the story; the sense of menace; the intervening magic.
It did seem (I’m of the same generation as Almond) that there were a greater number of deranged, demented and scarifying individuals at large in the community in the late 1950s and early 1960s. More than one character in this book would, in a contemporary novel, have been counselled or (more likely) drugged into comparative quietude. This, coupled with the freedom that children had to wander around from dawn till dusk without parental paranoia (it really was like that then) makes it the perfect period to write about.
Almond’s fiction is special because it has a religious or spiritual layer. The main characters in this book are altar boys who, with typical adolescent mundanity, view their duties (at weddings and funerals) in the same regard as waiters serving at table, with an eye on the best tip. The damaged character is one who has been rejected by the Roman Catholic seminary, and yet, moulding figures out of clay, seems to have the divine power of investing the inanimate with life.
Like all great books, Clay contains tragedy, hope and a sense of right (or down-to-earth goodness) being wronged. It’s a reminder, if reminder is needed, that David Almond is the very best author at work in the field of YA fiction in the UK.
This is the first title on ACHUKAREVIEWS to be awarded five GOLD achukachiks.

Filed Under: Teen/YA

Social

  • View achuka’s profile on Twitter

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Categories

  • Adult
  • Audiobook
  • Chapter Books
  • Counting
  • Drama
  • Early Readers
  • Fairytales & Retellings
  • Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Graphic Novels
  • Historical
  • Humour
  • Mystery/Thriller
  • Non-Fiction
  • Picture Books
  • Poetry
  • Pop-Ups
  • Reference
  • SciFi
  • Series
  • Teen/YA
  • Uncategorized
  • War

Archives

  • August 2018
  • February 2018
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • November 2011
  • September 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • September 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • February 2010
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • June 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • July 2008
  • March 2008
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005

Copyright ACHUKA © 2021 · designed on Genesis Framework