In Orsenna's witty rumination on words and grammar, 10-year-old Jeanne and her 14-year-old brother, Thomas, are shipwrecked on a strange island where words have become independent. Rendered mute, the siblings visit the Word Market, where one can buy the perfect word for any occasion. They also travel to a town full of independent words that strut around without the need for human beings to utter them. The marriages that take place between nouns and adjectives or adverbs are particularly clever: "house
, still preceded by the
, came out of the shop with the qualifier she liked best: haunted
. Thrilled with her purchase, she kept telling her articled servant, 'Haunted
, imagine that, I've always simply adored ghosts, and now I'll never be alone again.' " Such word adventures help restore the siblings' power of speech. On this level, the book works admirably. The more serious subplots involving the siblings' estranged parents and a cadre of strict grammarians who kidnap Jeanne are betrayed by shallow characterization. Having raised darker and more grown-up questions, the author seems unable to provide answers as satisfying as the open-ended whimsy of his word island. Existing in the precarious middle ground between a children's tale and adult fiction, the novel delights while providing maddening hints of a stronger, more rewarding story. (May)
FYI:
A member of the French Academy, Orsenna is the author of
André Le Nôtre: Gardener to the Sun King.
