In a novel that is not exactly historical fiction and not exactly fantasy, we trail along after an annoying 13 year old girl in a dying town whose only employers is going out of business. Set in the happy go lucky 1930s we see no one who is not in some way damaged.
Among the handful of characters we find no one is particularly fun to be around. The two men we meet are weak and feeble, though one is kind enough. Most of the women of the tiny town of Cradle Cross belong to a club of Ruths and Naomis-war widows as near as I can tell who meek out meager livings having to do with horn buttons. Then there are witches and mermaids who come to take over the story.
Only they are not witches nor mermaids. Ruby’s Spoon is like reading The Hobbit and having Tolkien tell at the end that there really aren’t any Hobbits or Goblins, and he really doesn’t know where you got such an idea. Then there is the matter of alien dialect everyone in Cradle Cross speaks-
“S’ all right, Captin. It woe be your countertops as see yo banged up in Winson Green,” said Ruby. “It ull be for flogging fish that’s green under the batter.”
“Ay I taught yo nothing, Ruby?” He reached over for the broom and swept at her feet while she jumped and giggled. “Who will I leave me fishy empire to if Ruby plays so light and careless wi it? If her goes bringing me good name to disrepute?”
Listening to the audio book of Ruby’s Spoon I was lost at sea a good deal of the time, though John Lee makes a heroic job of reading this mishmash and does his best to give the feeble characters some life of their own. More than once I had no idea whatsoever was being said, though I did get used to the middle of nowhere English dialect after a while.
The story itself was a rather boring bit of business about a man we never see, though he has ruined the lives of just about everyone we do see. He was a right bastard who left plenty of real bastards behind him wherever he went. The surprise ending of Ruby’s Spoon was only mildly surprising because I really didn’t much care by the time the revelations were revealed.
It’s the kind of book that literary types should like, a book without the standard elements of the modern novel. There is a lot going on, and maybe that was part of the problem, there was a little too much going on.
And then there were the Names! Ruby Abel Tailor, Captin, the Ruths and Naomis, the Nans, The Black Bird aka The Dredger aka Belle Severn, Isa Fly, Moonie, Cradle Cross, and endless odd terms and names for everything with only an occasional explanation.
Anna Lawrence Pietroni’s first book is a weighty bit of business that has the feel of an adventure game. We are so often set adrift in the world of Cradle Cross that the desire to take control and find out something, anything, on our own is nearly overwhelming. I can see a lot of potential in Anna Lawrence Pietroni, I hope that her next book finds an Editor with enough will to bend the next meandering tale into a novel.
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