On this final Sunday in March, in honor of #DWJMarch and all fans of Diana Wynne Jones, I present a very tired author reading from Dogsbody, as suggested by Dragonrose, plus a bonus of my own choosing. It also features accompaniment from the iPad-Who-Would-Not-Be-Silenced, and my own dog, Frieda, on Squeaker (fairly certain not a Zoi) Toy.
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Dogsbody is a standalone novel, but like so many of her works, its world is deep enough that it leaves one wishing for more stories with set in the general vicinity. I first read it in the same mad imaginative growth spurt during which I read Homeward Bounders, Archer’s Goon, Time of the Ghost and a number of her other standalone works (this was in the early naughts, before Year of the Griffin had been published), and at the time was deeply unsatisfied with the story in a sore, cold-foot-ache (to borrow a phrase from Jamie) sort of way, because although I wished for a happier ending, I understood even then that it was the best possible ending it could have had.
In revisiting portions of it in preparation for this reading I discovered, to my astonishment, that it has a downright miraculous ending. Still bittersweet, yes, and it still gives me that cold-foot-chest-ache, but it is altogether a wonderful and beautiful thing: unflinchingly realistic in its depiction of humans and human behavior, and yet it injects into a very dark and troubling story an unmitigated beam of optimism, which, though narrow, is bright and sharp as a polished knife. And it is that, I now realize, which hurts. Because there are a lot of Duffies in the world, and precious few Miss Smiths.
The Tough Guide to Fantasyland was perhaps the first book by Diana Wynne Jones I ever read. (Aunt Maria was the first I encountered, but I didn’t muster the courage to actually read it until some years later). It has, more than any other work, influenced me in my decisions of what not to do.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my Diana Wynne Jones read-aloud! If you want to revisit any of the episodes, you’ll find them all collected in the DWJmarch read-aloud 2016 tag. Enjoy!
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