Susan Fletcher Reviews

Shadow Spinner
      219 pp. Atheneum
     Reviewed 7/98
     (Intermediate)
Surely, the most famous storyteller of all time is Scheherazade (or, as Susan Fletcher renders the spelling, Sharazad), whose tales became the foundation for the popularly titled Arabian Nights. But just how did she acquire this vast repertoire? Fletcher offers a plausible explanation in a suspenseful first-person novel in which Marjan, an orphan crippled by a cruel mischance, becomes involved in palace politics as a handmaiden to the fabled princess and as a discoverer of new stories, thus becoming one source for some of the thousand and one tales used by Sharazad to save her life. The style, in its re-creation of life in a Persian harem and city, is descriptive but not lush, advantageously restrained. Although the dialogue sometimes suggests modern sensibilities in observations on the fate of women or in phrases such as “we’ll sort this through,” the author makes no claims for complete verisimilitude, indicating in an appended note the extent of her reliance on Burton’s edition of the tales. Fletcher puts her own spin on the source material, telling a tale in which the pace is consistent, the characters interesting, and the plot impelling. The conclusion is particularly notable for its avoidance of implausible sentimentality: it is a hopeful rather than a conventional “happy ending.” Equally notable are the boxed “Lessons for Life and Storytelling” that precede each chapter. Not only do they serve as links between plot elements, they are also shrewd observations on the potential of language and literature to effect change. As Marjan comments in one of these, “Words are how the powerless can have power.” M.M.B.

Alphabet of Dreams
     294 pp. Seo/Atheneum
     Reviewed 11/06
     (Intermediate, Middle School)
A fourteen-year-old thief, Mitra, and her little brother Babak join the magus Melchior’s caravan after Babak starts to prophesy through dreams, prompting Melchior and two other magi to set out for Bethlehem, where a child has been born in a stable. Author Fletcher prevents thatmonumental occurrence from overbalancing the narrative by keeping the scale human, cleaving solely to Mitra’s point of view. Mitra’s involvement in the event at Bethlehem turns personal only during Herod’s massacre of the innocents, when Babak’s dreams and Mitra’s own troubled conscience compel her to take action. Written in a natural first-person voice with loving attention to the sounds, smells, and tastes of the Middle East, this well-shaped historical novel brings a new perspective to an ancient story. ANITA L. BURKAM

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