The Language of Trees by Ilie Ruby
Reviewed by Bobby D. Lux
In her debut novel, The Language of Trees, Ilie Ruby wastes no time grabbing her readers and immersing them into a sense of foreboding that hangs in the air like heavy fog. Her narrative is instantly inviting and her characters are as charming as they are wonderfully vulnerable.
Among the many strengths of this work is how Ruby’s Lake Canandaigua setting leaps off the page as well-defined as you would expect any other character. Ruby, also a poet, knows this setting very well and whether it’s charting the twenty-four hour lifespan of the Mayfly on the one day a year they inhabit the lake to telling of local myths and legends, she injects the reader with an honest feeling of the region without slipping into melancholy.
Of course, the themes of love lost and discovering a second chance in life are among the usual suspects, but Ruby’s approach to them illustrates a depth in her writing not always found in the work of debuting novelists. Ruby places her likable, headstrong, and wounded characters within in a haunting (a carefully chosen word) atmosphere where redemption is possible if you’re ready to find healing.
The result is character-driven page-turner of a novel that’s eager to be an excellent companion on long summer days. Ruby proves herself a writer capable of crafting an engaging story of great emotional depth; a writer both eager and well-prepared to stake a claim for herself in the literary world.
The Language of Trees was published by Avon Harper Collins. You can find more information on Ilie Ruby and her work at her website, www.ilieruby.com.
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Bobby D. Lux is the editor-in-chief of Onomatopoeia Magazine.
© 2010 Bobby D. Lux, All Rights Reserved
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