Chasing Redbird

Earlier this week I finished Sharon Creech's YA novel Chasing Redbird. Although I still loved her semi-rambling, casual style--a style that feels comfortable, like a favorite chair--the plot of this novel passed me by somehow. The characters were endearing and memorable--the uncle who runs about waving a stick; the main character, Zinny, a collector of everything from bottlecaps and white pebbles to mental images and fading memories. The weakness I saw was the fact that many of the character actions seemed unmotivated: why is Zinny obsessed with the trail? why have her aunt and uncle created this other world in the woods? and how is it possible that no one knew about the cabin? why is Jake a kleptomaniac? I had the same feeling with this novel that I have feared for my own writing; that is, that I will become so enamored of a certain image that I will ram it into my work whether it fits or no. The dying-in-a-drawer image struck me this way. And the medallion. And the snake thrashing. And the divided house. I'm not giving up on Creech though. I still admire her breadth of style and unwillingness to fall into a safe pattern in her writing. Formulaic she is not. And that seems like a great rule to follow.