the line between, by peter s beagle

I love Peter S Beagle's stuff. Ever since I found out that my childhood favorite movie (The Last Unicorn) was based on a book, tracked it down, read it and loved it more than the movie, which is rare, I've been a loyal fan. So when I was at ICFA, and this book was just sitting there in the book room, looking sad with it's unremarkable cover, I had to get it. And I'm so glad I did.

It's a collection of short stories. The very first one is "Two Hearts" which I heard about ages ago and thought was in a different collection-- it's the sequil to The Last Unicorn, and it made me sob uncontrollably for half an hour. It was so worth it. I'll read it to my children, if I can ever get to the point where reading it doesn't make me blind with tears. But his unicorn stories always do that to me, and the fact that there's Schmendrick and Molly Grue, and the prince grown into a poor old king... It just undid me.

After that, there's a selection of lovely and charming tales. My favorites were: "Salt Wine" which is so strange and longing and feels really authentic, and leaves a sort of haunting feeling afterward. It made me think of one of my friend Jude's stories-- I don't remember if it's been published yet-- and of how I felt when I was little and read the original Little Mermaid before the Disney version existed. And it sort of felt like something Neil Gaiman might write, so maybe that's why I like his work, too. And at the end, there was "A Dance For Emilia" which is kind of silly and preposterous, but so full of honest sadness and love that it didn't matter and really struck home all the same. And there was one that was a sort of prequil to The InnKeeper's Song", which I haven't read yet, but now want to, because the world there is so strange and weird and I want to know more about it.

All of them have a little background before them, a little framework for understanding them and knowing what they mean, which is pretty great.

It's a lovely book, one to read slowly and really savor. I'm so glad I bought it.