In his Stone Book quartet, Alan Garner traces the lives of four generations of a working-class family in Chorley, a Cheshire village. Sentimental primitivism pervades Mr. Garner's books. His characters are by place possessed, and nostalgia for lost occupations and identities weighs heavy….
The Stone Book Quartet is gracefully written and at times wonderfully provocative. Frequently Mr. Garner uses old-fashioned words whose sounds convey their sense. Mystery abounds in the books, and events are frequently hazy. Mr. Garner's symbols are rarely clear, and he forever appeals to the creative imagination. At times his books resemble [William] Hazlitt's distant objects. Placed in shadows beyond the limitations of vision, they appeal to the fancy.
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