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Book Review: Zel by Donna Jo Napoli
Title: Zel
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Published: New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1996
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 227
Total Page Count: 142,149
Text Number: 418
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Young Zel and her mother live in near isolation far from the village—but when they go into town for market, Zel encounters a young man who her mother feels they must protect themselves against. Zel is a dark, delicate retelling of Rapunzel. Napoli's voice is stylistic and poetic—it's unusual, even offputting, and it fails to be a convincing voice because it stays static even when the narrative headhops into first person, but the language is terse, beautiful, and evocative; this is a book for reading between the lines. The story doesn't stray far from the tale of Rapunzel as we know it, except that it delves painfully deep into emotional motivation and response. This is at odds with a sense of predestination that runs through the text: characters stick to the Rapunzel script as though following it rather than creating it, and it undermines their decisiveness. These flaws are visible but can't overwhelm the book's sparse, powerful, dark beauty; Zel has deceptive weight and it lingers in the mind. I recommend it, and will read more from Napoli some day.
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Published: New York: Dutton Children's Books, 1996
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 227
Total Page Count: 142,149
Text Number: 418
Read Because: personal enjoyment, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Young Zel and her mother live in near isolation far from the village—but when they go into town for market, Zel encounters a young man who her mother feels they must protect themselves against. Zel is a dark, delicate retelling of Rapunzel. Napoli's voice is stylistic and poetic—it's unusual, even offputting, and it fails to be a convincing voice because it stays static even when the narrative headhops into first person, but the language is terse, beautiful, and evocative; this is a book for reading between the lines. The story doesn't stray far from the tale of Rapunzel as we know it, except that it delves painfully deep into emotional motivation and response. This is at odds with a sense of predestination that runs through the text: characters stick to the Rapunzel script as though following it rather than creating it, and it undermines their decisiveness. These flaws are visible but can't overwhelm the book's sparse, powerful, dark beauty; Zel has deceptive weight and it lingers in the mind. I recommend it, and will read more from Napoli some day.