THE PEOPLE IN THE CASTLE: SELECTED STRANGE STORIES
By Joan Aiken
Small Beer Press
www.smallbeerpress.com
Joan Aiken (1924-2004) was an acclaimed writer of supernatural fiction and children’s fantasy stories who won notice in her native England and in the United States. In “The People in the Castle,” Small Beer Press of Easthampton is offering 20 of her tales in a new collection because, as writer and editor Kelly Link says, “It seems the right moment to introduce the stories … to a new audience.”
The stories, which range from the mid-1950s to about 1990 and are arranged alphabetically, include the title piece, in which an irritable doctor who works just outside a ruined castle is humanized when he cures a mysterious patient, Helen, who turns out to be a fairy maiden — part of a ghostly royal entourage, including a king, that still exists in the castle.
Only the doctor can see them, and when he falls in love with Helen, the king grants his permission for a wedding — with the warning that the doctor must never become cross with his young bride, who sheds her magical side to become a helpful human wife and a well-liked office assistant to her husband. “She’s like a ray of sunshine, bless her,” people said.
But the doctor eventually does lose his patience with Helen one evening, complaining that she never stops talking, at which point she vanishes, leaving him distraught. He becomes a virtual hermit; if there were only some way he could get Helen back …
It’s one of several stories in which Aiken offers an array of interesting female characters — plucky, tough, a bit mysterious, like the otherwordly young woman in “The Last Specimen” — while the male characters can seem a bit more confused and self-involved. As Publisher’s Weekly writes, Aiken’s women “are written to be identified with; the men are written to be entertained by.”
And those stories are indeed entertaining, Link writes in an introduction, as well as models of good writing. “The particular joys of a Joan Aiken story have always been her capacity for this kind of brisk invention; her ear for dialect; her characters and their idiosyncrasies.”
MUSIC FOR LIFE: MUSIC PARTICIPATION AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF SENIOR CITIZENS
by C. Victor Fung & Lisa J. Lehmberg
Oxford University Press
www.oup.com
A growing body of research has shown that music can have a positive, even therapeutic impact on child development, mental health issues, and the stress and pain of dying. A new book from Oxford University Press now looks at the role music can play in the lives of the elderly.
In “Music for Life,” Lisa J. Lehmberg, an associate professor of music education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and co-author C. Victor Fung have drawn on new research from a number of fields — music education, adult learning, medicine, music therapy — to examine the benefits music provides for senior citizens.
A good part of the book is focused on the elderly in a retirement town in the southeastern United States (the exact location is not identified), including an in-depth look at members of a bluegrass group and those of a church choir.
Lehmberg and Fung — the latter is a professor and coordinator of music education at the University of South Florida — found music was an integral part of insuring a good quality of life for those senior citizens.
“While music participation alone is not sufficient for a good quality of life, it is an essential contributor,” the authors write.
And among the suggestions they offer, Lehmberg and Fung say music education should expand beyond schools, including to service centers for the elderly, and in families themselves: “Music is a special phenomenon that helps in making connections of all sorts. As long as one is attending to music or involved in it, a better quality of life is ensured.”