The Onion Girl by Charles De Lint

Based on De Lint's modern-mythical short stories of Newford, which surround the character of artist Jilly Coppercorn, we have this whole novel, one of a series. So I'd read a couple of the chapters before, both included in both of De Lint's short story collections I've gone over. Many of the characters in play were familiar, but I think there were too many. Most of them didn't contribute to the story, aside from lending Truth to the pre-standing mileau of Newford.

I got a strong feeling our writer didn't know what was going to happen in his novel, aside from knowing he had a few short stories to work from, and that his novel had to be novel-length. In The Onion Girl, Jilly has a bad accident and is partially paralyzed, and staying in the hospital. During this stay, she gets especially into visiting the dream worlds.

As a young girl, Jilly ran away from her troubled home, leaving her younger sister, Raylene, to feel forever, bitterly abandoned. As adults, Raylene and her friend Pinky seek revenge in both the dream world and the world as it is. Set in fairly modern times, we get the idea that De Lint prefers hippies and artists over most people. And that's all fine, but it doesn't need to be illustrated at every opportunity.

But the story itself is pretty heart-warming, and eventually surprising. And I realized some of those chapters, which I thought unnecessary, served as valuable coupons for an allegory beyond the old reaffirmation that the only way to beat Evil is with Love. With all that said, I still think The Onion Girl is a good book, but I was not prepared for how much patience it would require.