Dec 31

Dec 31 Treacle Walker

Author: Alan Garner
Publisher: Fourth Estate (not published in the US)
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

Click above to buy this book from Blackwells, an independent bookstore in the UK that ships to the US for free.

Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Treacle Walker is a stunning fusion of myth and folklore and an exploration of the fluidity of time, vivid storytelling that brilliantly illuminates an introspective young mind trying to make sense of everything around him.

'Ragbone! Ragbone! Any rags! Pots for rags! Donkey stone!'

Joe looked up from his comic and lifted his eye patch. There was a white pony in the yard. It was harnessed to a cart, a flat cart, with a wooden chest on it. A man was sitting at a front corner of the cart, holding the reins. His face was creased. He wore a long coat and a floppy high-crowned hat, with hair straggling beneath, and a leather bag was slung from his shoulder across his hip.

Joe Coppock squints at the world with his lazy eye. He reads his comics, collects birds' eggs and treasures his marbles, particularly his prized dobbers. When Treacle Walker appears off the Cheshire moor one day - a wanderer, a healer - an unlikely friendship is forged and the young boy is introduced to a world he could never have imagined.

TL;DR Review

Well, that was weird. Definitely smart and imaginative and impressive — just a bit over my head. Still, it was fun to read and puzzle through!

For you if: You don’t mind books that challenge the reader and get a bit out there.

Full Review

I’m not sure I have a ton to add that other (particularly US) reviewers have already said: This book is quirky and imaginative and definitely goes a bit over the head — although that seems to be on purpose.

This super-short book is about a young boy named Joe who meets a mysterious, quirky man named Treacle Walker who offers pots and pans in exchange for old rags and bones. The pot Joe chooses has a bit of magic in it that opens just one of his eyes to a more mysterious, deeper world around him. The book bobs and weaves and jumps and twirls and gives us a unique take on how childhood gives way to experience.

I read through this in one sitting, then spent some time on the author’s websites reading his “Treacle Tangents.” I recommend doing it that way rather than reading the tangents as you go, because I needed to get a better grasp on the overall themes before the tangents made sense. But once I did, I had a good time clicking through them.

TLDR, even though this probably went over my head a bit, I still had fun reading and puzzling through it, and it made for a really great #BookerOfTheMonth discussion!