Jack in the Green
4/5
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About this ebook
Jack in the Green is an original novella, set in the fictional Southwestern desert city of Santo del Vado Viejo, and is available here for the first time in any format.
Best friends Maria and Luz grew up in the barrio and were inseparable until Luz left town to fight against social injustice. They lose track of one another until one day, while at her job cleaning rich people's homes, Maria spots Luz among a gang robbing the house next door. Luz later tells Maria that her gang robs from the rich and gives to the poor, like a modern day Robin Hood. Luz says she brought the leader and his men to their city by magic.
Maria isn't sure if she believes that, but she does know that she feels an undeniable romantic connection to their handsome leader, the mysterious Jack Green, and the feeling is mutual. Between her rekindled friendship with Luz and her attraction to Jack, she gets drawn into a life that’s 180 degrees opposite to how she’s been living. But when things go awry, it’s Maria who must pay the final price.
Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction in the manner of storytellers like John Crowley, Jonathan Carroll, Alice Hoffman, Ray Bradbury, and Isabel Allende.
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Reviews for Jack in the Green
14 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Charles de Lint's Jack in the Green is quite lovely. It's a Robin Hood story, sort of. It brings the spirit of Robin Hood to a Hispanic community in the US, during the recession, to steal from the bankers and give to those who can't pay their bills. It's not that different a story to Maurice Broaddus' version of King Arthur in a black neighbourhood, but somehow I don't mind it at all. It feels truer to the spirit of the Robin Hood stories, I suppose.It's written in a straightforward, easy to read way; the magic in it is just... accepted as part of the world, not over-explained or positioned in such a way that it takes over the story. I really liked that casual inclusion of magic, impossible things, because it somehow made it feel more believable.Admittedly, for me the story was more an interesting intellectual exercise than something that involved me emotionally, but there's an enjoyment in that, too, in something that makes you think, "How is he going to do this? How will he make it work?"I should get round to reading more of Charles de Lint's work.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A nice, little retelling of Robin Hood that is told in de Lint's plain, straight forward writing, Jack in the Green finds Robin (known as Jack this time around)brought to the modern day Southwest barrio. I've still not read that much de Lint, but I do like how he handles magic in his stories: that there really isn't an explanation for how it works, you just accept it how it is. However, I found the socio political context of the story a little heavy handed; given that it's a Robin Hood retelling, we already know it's about how the rich are oppressing the poor (this time seen from the point of view of the recent recession), but to have it made such a large point in the story, so many times, felt too much like de Lint was simply writing this to express his views and was trying to hide it poorly in this novella. I'm not sorry I read it, I'm just not sure this will ever rank up there as a favorite for me. I want to mention a little on the physical book itself. It's beautiful. Charles Vess' cover illustration is fantastic, and fits the tone of the story quite well, as do his interior illustrations. Subterranean Press did an excellent job with the production of the book. The green, leaf embossed endpapers are gorgeous and the graphic design of the book is really top notch. This book is another of the reasons I think Sub Press is one of the finest small press run printers in the country.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short, sweet novella that merges de Lint's ability to weave classic fantasy tropes into the American southwest almost seamlessly.
This one's a bit more of a political story than some of his work, but as the titular character's an embodiment of Robin Hood, what else would you expect?
Very well done and as always, Vess' illustrations are perfect complements to the text.