anemogram. is the story of an unconventional relationship, where two lost souls meet and embark on a trip where reality is tinged with the surreal and dreamlike.
A young girl emerges out of the woods. David is in the middle of wrestling with an unsatisfactory existence when she enters his life. He decides to look out for the girl, but he soon discovers she may not be all she seems.
Together they decide to seek out a place of safety, away from a world that could misunderstand their relationship. As their troubles come to the surface, events take a turn that will have life-changing consequences for the both of them.
Excerpt
She didn’t want to go there yet. So she turned and headed across open wasteland, into the domain of the sun and its cherishing death. She bobbed up and down and held out her white dress, spinning and drawing in the warm air. Her legs were cherubim podgy and she moved like an electrified hamster. The wasteland contoured down a textured valley which in turn vaulted into the distance and away. She stood in its open magnificence, its blanched earth under the blue-white sky of God.
Professional Reviews
Leo Robertson's Goodreads review
It's been a pleasure of mine to read a number of Gransden's cryptic short stories. It's rare that a debut author comes out with a style this defined: stories that glance off of memories, of the surreal, and... that's actually about as good a description as I can come up with, for the simple reason that I find her work original, indescribable. Gransden is the only author whose stories I need to read to the end before I can make any sense of them. It's almost as if the true reading of her stories is in remembering them. That's because her stories are as much about what isn't happening as what is. With language, she hypnotises and seduces, but never gives too much away, asking that we bring our curiosity and eye for detail.
Her debut novel(la?) anemogram is no different. What does the title mean? I was told it was chosen at random. But I think the peripatetic title found its story. It is the record of the wending path of a young elfin girl that catches upon a stranger with the chance and grace of a fly stitch. Their journey together is as apparently meandering- and yet, upon further examination, as predestined- as the movement of the wind. But hey: get your own meaning. This story isn't about my projection; it's about yours.
If I was forced to compare, I'd go for Carver, Hemingway, or Ballard. But I don't know that I enjoy those guys as much.
You should read this
Luke F. D. Marsden's Goodreads review
A man going through a mid-life crisis - David - takes a homeless waif under his wing, bunking work to look out for her for a while. She, seemingly innocent, knows how to manipulate people to survive. He takes her at face value and sees an idealised reflection of his own estranged daughter in her, and it is this version of the girl that we meet at the beginning of the book.
In this idealised image, the girl is almost an incarnation of nature itself, inhabiting the woods and verges, more Daughter Nature than Mother Nature. Young, yet with the clear-eyed and unadulterated wisdom of children. With the diminished physical sphere of interest of those her age, she appreciates the tiniest things and, through her, he begins to re-learn to connect with his surroundings and to discover a long-forgotten, younger side of himself. As with any ideal, however, reality can never live up to its promise ...
The style of the book is varied - largely lyrical but interspersed with no-frills dialogue and gritty descriptions of degraded semi-urban landscapes. Some of the most memorable passages are the dreamy, meandering asides when Tinker, the girl's imaginary companion, tells her bedtime stories with a pleasing absence of logic in them.
The portrayal of a man in middle-age, foolhardily trying to wind back the clock, poses a dilemma for the Anemogram reader. His efforts with the girl are harmless, patient, kind, even endearing. But why? Are they for her, or for himself? And does it really matter, if they are well-intentioned? His reactions to some of the events in the book are Jesus-esque in their degree of forgiveness, and this made him slightly less plausible than he would have been otherwise. To this end, it would have been interesting to know more of his background and what, if anything, he was attempting to redeem himself from, other than the breakdown of his family. It is, though, a novel driven with purpose by the solid characters of the girl and David and leaves you feeling that you know them - a nice way to finish time spent with any book.
Part Three in the Mu Series - Sarah Thompson reluctantly abandons her desperate search for her soul mate on Maui and returns to her Montana hometown. Her brother has had a terrible accident...
The bulk of the collection is eight short stories that are set in yesteryear. The compilation is filled out with four entertaining fantasy pieces and three poems.
