Watts, Leander. Stonecutter, a novel.

WATTS, Leander. Stonecutter, a novel. Houghton Mifflin, Graphia. 181p. c2002.0-61860577-0. $799. JS

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, September 2002: Stonecutter is a Gothic tale with mythic elements. In diary form, the narrator, a young stonecutter from upstate New York in the first half of the 19th century, tells about how he is chosen for a strange job in a strange place. A mysterious character named John Good (who seems anything but good) hires him to travel some distance to the grand mansion he is building in order to make a memorial to his long-dead wife. John Good's daughter Michal looks just like her dead mother, and she will be the model for the stonecutter (named Albion Straight). Albion hates the feel of the mansion, which seems like a prison to him. And the cave where the wife is buried, where the memorial will be, is an eerie place of dread. When Albion gets to know Michal better as she poses for the gravestone cutting, he learns that she too feels like a prisoner in her father's house. She yearns to escape to Manhattan and beyond, to get as far away from her father as possible. Nothing is ever spelled out as to the relationship between father and daughter, but an evil emanates from any scene between the two and suggestive language abounds as to whether this is an incestuous relationship. We don't know for sure, however. Albion helps Michal escape this horrible man and his riches. They journey through the forest, trying to find their way back north to the village Albion is from, where he was an apprentice stonecutter. Michal becomes weak and sick from the strain of the journey and the two are rescued finally, miraculously, when it seems all is lost.

The language sets this tale apart from other YA fiction. It is slightly archaic, seemingly a story written in the 19th century as well as set there. But it fits well into this Gothic mode--the foreshadowing of danger, the dread, the darkness. In no way do we feel that these two teenagers could be modern youth because their world of 1835 is so well described. Yet any YA today can understand Michal's suffocation, her obsession to escape her tyrannical father, and the kindness of Albion in helping her find a salvation. This is Watts's first fiction for YAs, and a most interesting addition to the literature. Claire Rosser, KLIATT

J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers.

S--Recommended for senior high school students.