Stonecutter

by Leander Watts

In 1835 in rural New York State, apprentice stonecutter Albion Straight relates his experiences when he is hired by the strangely menacing John Good to carve a statue of his daughter. Reprint.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Teen, Young Adult

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Leander Watts is the author of five young adult novels. He lives in the Genesee Valley of western New York State, where he teaches writing and literature (special areas of interest: science fiction, crime novels and YA.)

He owns hundreds of vinyl albums (many still in the original cellophane), twelve fezzes, a ninety year old tenor sax, and the biggest collection of Big Hand Books known to exist.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book -- a hardcover for a change -- has been on my shelf of "Books to Read" since before we had a TV in the bedroom. It seems to be a young adult book with an interesting protagonist in a young boy apprenticed to a stonecutter. He seems to have some real talent, and he is 'leased' out to a man for an unspecified period to do some work in a mansion he is building. However, the unfinished estate he goes to is mysterious and full of silent people. Plot twists in the novel seem to portend that some kind of black magic is at work, but that doesn't pan out. The young stonecutter is commissioned to create a monument to commemorate the master's dead wife using the man's teenaged daughter as the model. You can pretty much guess the rest. The book is made interesting by the young man's profession and the Colonial time period.

[A. Mickey Perkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a love-hate relationship with this book. For the first third, it's dull, and the plot doesn't start until much later. Once he actually gets to the house and starts work on the monument, the plot picks up and is over before you know what hit you.

Since I base my ratings on how I feel right when I finish a book, this would have been five stars had it not been for that last thing that happened. The second Michal got sick, I knew it was all downhill from there.

[Juushika · Rating 3 out of 5]

In rural New York, 1835, Albion Straight is an apprentice stonecutter who shows great promise. He lives with his kind master's family, including his master's unnaturally perceptive young son, but when a strange men come to the small rural town, one of them hires Albion at exceptional rate to travel deep into the undeveloped wilds of New York and carve a statue for a rich, reclusive man. Upon reaching the unfinished sprawling mansion and witnessing the owner's unusual behavior, Albion begins to suspect that something strange and sinister surrounds the place. Told through Albion's journal entries, Stonecutter is a short and swift text. Albion's voice is somewhat distant, the setting is delicate and eerie, and the book is promising but ultimately unimpressive. Although the narrative is complete and there are a lot of potentially wonderful aspects, the final impact is as distant and as subtle as the narrative voice. I neither liked nor disliked this book; read it if you so desire, but I don't recommend it.

Having read Watt's Ten Thousand Charms , I was curious to see if he could combine his delicate and haunting writing style with a more coherent plot, and if the result would make for a more effective and impressive text. In Stonecutter, Watt's does indeed write in the same delicate style and the narrative is indeed more complete, but the final product still fails to be strong or meaningful. The story is told through Albion's journal, beginning with his safe and happy apprenticeship and continuing through his time at the mansion. The journal writing style could be personal and emotional, but Albion writes with a surprisingly detached voice, cleaning summing up most action after the fact. As such, while he is a realistically conceived character, Albion is not particularly vivid, and the reader is not emotionally drawn into his story, nor does it pass at a rapid or anxious pace. Instead, the writing is delicate, distant, and removed: the setting is haunting, and slowly grows more detailed and sinister as Albion learns more. Themes also build slowly, creating a careful and haunting atmosphere, but not one that is heavily-shadowed or immediate. This is a book written is shades of pale gray.

This book remains indistinct and delicate throughout, although the story grows into a clear narrative. Events occur, and the ending is quite full of action, but somehow the writing never becomes impassioned and the reader never becomes involved. So while the distant writing serves the setting well, it fails in building a compelling narrative. This is a swift read, and the reader is driven to find out how the story ends, but they are never swept up or transported, never made to feel the anxiety Albion feels, nor to share his fears. I think that Watts would have benefited by making the end of the book more haunting and insubstantial, or else making the whole of the book more vivid. The action at the ending feels out of place—it leaves the omens from the opening left hanging and undeveloped, ruining the haunting sense; because of Albion's cool removed narration, the action when it occurs is too distant to be compelling.

I admire what Watts attempted with this novel, and I would have liked to have read it were it more haunting or more vivid, but since it is neither, I was largely unimpressed by the book. The style and the narrative are both competent, but nothing more than that: not exceptional, not interesting, not memorable. I didn't dislike this book, but I was disappointed. If you're interested, then by all means read it—it is short enough, reads well enough, and you may enjoy it more than I did. But I don't recommend it, and don't plan to read it again. I also don't recommend it to a young adult audience, although the narrator is young and the book is in that genre. The fact that it is neither haunting nor exciting makes it too subtle and too lackluster to be a successful YA read. It's neither meaningful, nor engrossing.

[Lady Knight · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was rather strange for me.... parts really really reminded me of "The Crucible" while other parts really reminded me of "The Chrysalids". It wasn't bad, just weird.... It's set in the United States in the 1800s.

Albion is apprenticed to a master stonecutter. He loves his work: the feel of the stone under his chisel, sizing up the stones, and carving weightless images out of solid masses. He thinks he's a normal apprentice until one day a strange man visits the shop and tells Albion he's extraordinary, then he touches him and Albion feels weak. Soon the man leaves, and Albion pushes the incident to the back of his mind. A while later a man arrives and asks Albion's master if he may hire Albion for a very special job. The Master agrees and Albion is off. After a long journey (at least to Albion it feels that way, he's never been more than 10 miles from the shop before) they arrive. He soon comes face to face with the strange man from before. He is forced to agree to carve a memorial before he is allowed to return home. He reluctantly agrees. He is next told that Michal, the man's daughter, will be the model upon which all statues are to be based. Michal is miserable. She is confined to the strange world her father's created and has always lived in her dead mother's shadow. She wishes to leave and tries to get Albion to help her....

[Shania · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 and a half stars.

It was just a meh book for me. I bought it at a used bookstore and thought it'll be more like Changeling and the summary made me curious about it. I just wished there was more world building and charcter building, because Albion feels stiff for me. The book promised eerie, but not once did I feel chilled. It just wasn't for me and I'm sure if the author expanded the story more, we'd understand better. I liked Michal and I feel her need to escape, her need to be free. I just wished the story didn't end that easily and we are left with a feeling of despair and a tinge of a wtf feel to it. Overall it wasn't that bad, it's just a meh.

[Winddancer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Historical fiction but could be fantasy from how it is told. Rather spooky but not new when you figure out what the nemesis has in mind. Sad at the end. Told in such a way as to pull the reader into the time period. I read it in one sitting.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an historical novel with a touch of fantasy. Takes place in western New York, early 1800s. The author is from the Rochester area.

[Magda · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb was more exciting than the book. The tragic character who goes after his daughter is creepy and sad ... but really rather unexplored. Just ... unsatisfactory ending. Bleh.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew I'd like it, but I liked it even better than I thought I would, not being a fan of historical fiction typically.

[Anne Smith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. I read it through. I FINALLY wanted to see how Watts cleaned it all up. Writing is patchily good, and during those brief patches I noted I was sort of relieved.

[Holly]

Pretty meh.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

good read.

[Allison TeVelde · Rating 3 out of 5]

Captured my imagination and my heart, as I always gravitate towards stories about journeymen and their crafts. A quick read with an abrupt ending, yet still enjoyable for its masterful storytelling.