There are many close encounters in store for the reader of Alan Garner's work, and this is certainly true of [The Aimer Gate]. The language is cut concisely, the style exact and easy like a kind of music…. These books [of the Stone Book quartet] stand somewhat like four movements of Vivaldi's music. And there is music in everyone, an ophicleide or a cornet, and always a song. Although appearing last, The Aimer Gate is third in time and even in classic sonata form, the story of Chorley 1...

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...