Jack in the Green

by Charles de Lint

Maria Martinez is a young maid, cleaning houses to get by, living in a neighborhood of Santo del Vado Viejo plagued by gang violence and drug cartels. When Maria witnesses her best friend from her teenage years breaking into a house in a gated community where she’s working, she has no problem pretending to the police she didn’t see a thing. But as Luz Chaidez comes back into Maria’s life, Maria can’t help remembering the magic Luz left to look for all those years ago. Magic she may have found. Maria is curiously drawn to one of Luz’s green-hooded gang of robbers, a handsome redheaded boy who calls himself Jack Green. Soon enough, she’s venturing into the dangerous territory of robbing from the rich to give to the poor…

In this deft, 22,000 word novella, acclaimed fantasist Charles de Lint brings one of the world’s most beloved tales into the modern day, transporting Robin Hood from the green wood to the barrio. Jack recasts an epic story of love and friendship, with justice at its center, in a way that readers won’t soon forget.


Jack in the Green features a full-color dust jacket, and five interior b&w vignettes by longtime de Lint collaborator, Charles Vess.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Young Adult, Short Stories, Novella

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 2012

About the author

Charles de Lint is the much beloved author of more than seventy adult, young adult, and children's books. Renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy, Aurora, Sunburst, and White Pine awards, among others. Modern Library's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century poll, conducted by Random House and voted on by readers, put eight of de Lint's books among the top 100.
De Lint is a poet, folklorist, artist, songwriter and performer. He has written critical essays, music reviews, opinion columns and entries to encyclopedias, and he's been the main book reviewer for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1987. De Lint served as Writer-in-residence for two public libraries in Ottawa and has taught creative writing workshops for adults and children in Canada and the United States. He's been a judge for several prominent awards, including the Nebula, World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon and Bram Stoker.

Born in the Netherlands in 1951, de Lint immigrated to Canada with his family as an infant. The family moved often during de Lint's childhood because of his father's job with an international surveying company, but by the time Charles was twelve—having lived in Western Canada, Turkey and Lebanon—they had settled in Lucerne, Quebec, not far from where he now resides in Ottawa, Ontario.

In 1980, de Lint married the love of his life, MaryAnn Harris, who works closely with him as his first editor, business manager and creative partner. They share their love and home with a cheery little dog named Johnny Cash.

Charles de Lint is best described as a romantic: a believer in compassion, hope and human potential. His skilled portrayal of character and settings has earned him a loyal readership and glowing praise from peers, reviewers and readers.

Charles de Lint writes like a magician. He draws out the strange inside our own world, weaving stories that feel more real than we are when we read them. He is, simply put, the best.
—Holly Black (bestselling author)
Charles de Lint is the modern master of urban fantasy. Folktale, myth, fairy tale, dreams, urban legend—all of it adds up to pure magic in de Lint's vivid, original world. No one does it better.
—Alice Hoffman (bestselling author)

To read de Lint is to fall under the spell of a master storyteller, to be reminded of the greatness of life, of the beauty and majesty lurking in shadows and empty doorways.
—Quill & Quire

His Newford books, which make up most of de Lint's body of work between 1993 and 2009, confirmed his reputation for bringing a vivid setting and repertory cast of characters to life on the page. Though not a consecutive series, the twenty-five standalone books set in (or connected to) Newford give readers a feeling of visiting a favourite city and seeing old friends.
More recently, his young adult Wildlings trilogy—Under My Skin, Over My Head, and Out of This World—came out from Penguin Canada and Triskell Press in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Under My Skin won 2013 Aurora Award. A novel for middle-grade readers, The Cats of Tanglewood Forest, published by Little Brown in 2013, won the Sunburst Award, earned starred reviews in both Publishers Weekly and Quill & Quire, and was chosen by the New York Times Editors as one of the top six children's books for 2013. His most recent adult novel, The Mystery of Grace (2009), is a fascinating ghost story about love, passion and faith. It was a finalist for both the Sunburst and Evergreen awards.

De Lint is presently writing a new adult novel. His storytelling skills also shine in his original songs. He and MaryAnn (also a musician) recently released companion CDs of their original songs, samples of which can be heard on de Lin

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles de Lint's Jack in the Green is quite lovely. It's a Robin Hood story, sort of. It brings the spirit of Robin Hood to a Hispanic community in the US, during the recession, to steal from the bankers and give to those who can't pay their bills. It's not that different a story to Maurice Broaddus' version of King Arthur in a black neighbourhood, but somehow I don't mind it at all. It feels truer to the spirit of the Robin Hood stories, I suppose.

It's written in a straightforward, easy to read way; the magic in it is just... accepted as part of the world, not over-explained or positioned in such a way that it takes over the story. I really liked that casual inclusion of magic, impossible things, because it somehow made it feel more believable.

Admittedly, for me the story was more an interesting intellectual exercise than something that involved me emotionally, but there's an enjoyment in that, too, in something that makes you think, "How is he going to do this? How will he make it work?"

I should get round to reading more of Charles de Lint's work.

[[Name Redacted] · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Jack do you never sleep - does the green still run deep in your heart?
Or will these changing times, motorways, powerlines, keep us apart?
Well, I don't think so.
I saw some grass growing through the pavements today..."
--Jethro Tull, "Jack-in-the-Green"--

My father gave me a signed, sealed & numbered copy of this book as a birthday present last year. There were only a certain number of these ever printed. Upon finally unsealing it, I have discovered that -- purely by chance! -- my copy is #666.

~~~

UPDATE: What a miserable waste of time and paper. This is by far the worst, preachiest and most dated thing I've ever read by de Lint, and that's coming from a man who read The Wild Wood. At under 100 pages, it overstays its welcome by 80 pages; and advertising it as a collaboration with Charles Vess was a flat-out lie, since the book contains only two illustrations, one of which is so small it barely occupies half a page. What little de Lintian flair is present feels half-hearted at best, almost as though he began with the activist diatribes and was then ordered to add a narrative by his editor.

I suppose this explains why it was so easy to get a copy of a book this rare...

[Kat Hooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

Maria Martinez works as a maid in an upscale gated community. One day while she’s cleaning an upstairs bedroom, she glances out the window and notices a gang burglarizing the house next door. One of the gang members is a girl who used to be her best friend and another is a cute red-headed green-hoodied boy who catches Maria’s eye. Maria doesn’t call the police. Why should she? It’s not her house, they’re not her neighbors, and therefore it’s not her business. Later, when she runs into the burglars at the skating rink, Maria meets them and gets seduced into their world. It turns out that the gang has an admirable agenda — they steal from the rich and give to the poor. And they’ve got some magical help.

I love the Robin Hood legends and I love what I’ve read by Charles de Lint, so I should have really loved the novella Jack in the Green, de Lint’s modern spin on the myth. Unfortunately, I didn’t. The crux of the problems is that in order to make the story fit into a modern setting, de Lint has to ignore some modern realities that, if present, would ruin the story.

Let’s start with the one of the most glaring problems (at least for me): the idea that CEOs and bank executives (the people who the gang selectively targets) are rich because they’re greedy and evil. What about models, basketball players, and movie stars? Why isn’t Robin Hood’s gang going after them? The Robin Hood of legend was righting wrongs by taking ill-gotten gains from oppressive feudal lords and giving it back to the people who those same lords were oppressing. To suggest that CEOs are more evil than other rich people seems purposely obtuse. This modern Robin Hood is not punishing cruel greedy people; he’s redistributing wealth and stealing from insurance companies.

I’m pretty sure de Lint realized this made no sense because one of the gang’s victims (I won’t say who, but it’s a tie-in with the popular Disney version of the legend) actually is oppressing people in the town and he (rather than an insurance company) is truly hurt financially by the gang’s theft. If the rest of the victims had been like that man instead of just random CEOs living in gated communities, I could have bought into this story.

You may have realized that Maria the maid must be Robin Hood’s “Maid Marion,” and indeed she is. I thought this was cute, but the romance would have worked better for me if it had been based on something more than looks and if I hadn’t thought that Maria was the most morally reprehensible person in the whole story. I didn’t like her because she didn’t report the burglary (she uncaringly decided that it wasn’t her problem) and then she lied to the police about it.

Obviously, this novella didn’t work for me, but I probably could have overlooked these plot problems if the story had had the type of beautiful prose, vivid imagery and nuance I was expecting from de Lint. I did appreciate the magic system, the way de Lint played with mythological archetypes, and the desire to address the problem of poverty and inequality, but unfortunately I thought the plot was obvious, heavy-handed, and nonsensical.

Subterranean Press’s version of Jack in the Green has a lovely cover and a few interior drawings by Charles Vess.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge: A book with your favorite color in the title

I don't know, you guys. I think this is the day I give up on Charles de Lint completely. I was close anyway (could not finish Moonheart to save my life), but now I think I'm going to start actively avoiding his books.

If you'd handed this little 90-page item to me without any information on the author, I would have assumed it was the work of an ambitious undergrad rather than a prolific author who's been published since the 80s. If you were looking for feedback, I would have sent it back marked up with the areas and characters I thought needed to be fleshed out more, from the basic premise to, you know, all of them. Since the writer of this is 1000% a non-Hispanic white person, I would have suggested the undergrad author maybe run it by a Latinx friend to see if they have any suggestions on how to avoid lazy stereotypes (I am also, by the way, 1000% a non-Hispanic white person, but I would feel COMPLETELY comfortable observing that having characters repeat "this is loco" over and over is not necessary when you are trying to let a reader know your characters are Spanish-speaking and is in fact super annoying). I would definitely suggest extensive rewrites so the ending made sense "If we do this, we have to go back to our mythical forest" okay WHAT SINCE WHEN .
tl;dr lazy and underwritten, and I wouldn't have finished it except it was short and I had a lot of trouble finding a book I wanted to read that had the color green in the title. But if you want a good contemporary take on the Robin Hood myth, I'd suggest binge-watching the TV show "Leverage" instead.

[Carl V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given my familiarity with Charles de Lint’s work and his long history of tackling difficult subjects like poverty and abuse and inequality with honesty, creativity and a sense of hope amidst despair, I was wholly unprepared for a story that exposed real issues in a cliched fashion while offering nothing in the way of hope, with the exception of characters who were not worthy of the hope they receive. In the end this felt like little more than a revenge fantasy built on a very thin mythical foundation. If it is meant to be an indictment on the Robin Hood mythos, it is incredibly successful. If it has another purpose, it falls well short of its aim.

For a more detailed explanation of the problems I had with this novella, please visit the review on SF Signal here:

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2014...

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

рилична и много типична за Чарлз де Линт повест. Интересно, че има едно звучене като доста по-ранните му творби, даже докато я четях си мислех, че е писана през осемдесетте. Усеща се много силно влияние от Митаго ууд на Холдсток, но това го има в почти всяка съвремена книга в жанра.

Мария работи като камериерка из богатите квартали, докато живее в бариото. Един ден вижда как банда хлапета обира съседна на къщата в която работи, но не ги изпортва. Оказва се, че бандата е на нейна позабравена приятелка, с която като малки са се занимавали с магия. Бандата са архетипи на РОбин Худ и компания призовани да раздават правда по време на рецесията. Естествено, когато си играеш на разбойник ще се сблъскаш с истински лошите хора в бранша.

Историята е приятно сладко-горчива с необходимите дози социалност и магия. Написана е леко не ангажира и не дразни.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devoured in basically one sitting. Mr. de Lint has an easy-going yet powerful writing style that makes it hard to put a book down. This is no exception, though it's only about 100 pages. The mixture of desert and forest in this one is really compelling. Even in a few short pages, the characters are well-written and thought out. My only complaint is with the end. There's a lot of violence which seems out of place for this author. Not that there isn't pain and death in his stories. But this end just seems like it's out of a movie instead it's bows a-blazing, not guns a-blazing. Just makes me wonder if there was a way to end the story without so much bloodshed. HOWEVER. I still really enjoyed reading it.

[J Sams · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Lint never disappoints

I've been a fan of this author for going on two decades now. He was one of the many gifts my wife brought me before she passed. Sometimes I go back and read the notes she wrote me in the margins of his older books. His writing brings a sense of contentment that was previously only reached by Steinbeck or Vonnegut.
This book has all the old magic and timeless sense of wonder that his early work evokes. I would recommend it to any reader who can appreciate how the written word can affect deep feelings in a person's heart.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason I never read deLint until about 10 years ago. I owned an SF/fantasy bookstore and sold tons of deLint, but never picked him up myself. Now I'm catching up. Jack in the Green is a modernized Robin Hood story set in a Hispanic setting. Not the best deLint, but still very good. Short but wonderfully written.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightful modern imagining of an English mythical figure conjured to help the neighbourhood of Santo del Vado Viejo. I will say no more save that as you would expect from Charles de Lint it is beautifully written.

[Jeannette Woodard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but Charles de Lint in top form.

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short but interesting revamp of Robin Hood.

[Joseph Ruckman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charles has still got it! He's one of the few writers who gives me hope in troubled times.

[Rose Prickett · Rating 2 out of 5]

An easy read but much too preachy, broad-brushing of anyone who lives in a gated community and the morality smacked of "It's okay when WE do it" in regards to theft, home invasion, not reporting home invasion or working with the police, and overly violent revenge.

The original Robin Hood works because the feudal system ideally works something like this: The peasants need a place to live and food to eat. The lord needs his land worked and food to eat. The peasants pay taxes and tithes of what they grow in exchange for land to live, grow food on, trades to practice, upkeep of roads, and defense from bandits, other lords, etc. The lord uses said taxes and tithes to pay for running the fiefdom and defence. A similar relationship exists between the nobles and the King. Not only is this necessary for the lord to make any kind of profit to use to enrich his fiefdom but it's also a moral obligation. Noblesse oblige and the Church advocating charity, mercy, the duty of those with to share with those without. Now obviously theory and practice do not always agree, but this is why Robin Hood works so well morally. The people he was stealing from weren't just "rich people bad" they were failing in their moral duty to their people. The money he was giving to the poor wasn't just random money. It was most likely their own gold taken by excessive taxes.

Bankers and CEOs are not the same as a feudal lord. They are not morally obligated to care for people in their job description or in how the government is set up. I'm not saying it's right or fair, but it makes the black-and-white morality here ring hollow. There are attempts at nuance but they are drowned out like conversations at a rave.

Personal thing: There was this odd thing with the introduction of the Glimmer Twins where it seems to be insinuated that they're gay, (the repitition of them holding hands, being "content with each other" while everyone pairs off, and that before Maria goes to talk to someone after flirting with Jack, he asks is she's leaving him for a boy or girl, presumably to flirt with. She glances at the twins holding hands and asks if it matters. How am I not to take that as implication?) but then the rest of the book treats them as actual twins and never suggests anything romantic between them again. So I had this awful idea for a while that they were incestuous. Please. There's way too much incest stuff being treated as normal and even good in fantasy and sci-fi. Don't scare me like this.

[Rugg Ruggedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's a book that I've probably read a half dozen times or more, in a new addition from Subterranean Press,that has a new dust jacket and new illustrations by Charles Vess. I thought those additions made it worth another read, and might make it something worth going back to on a regular basis. Both things proved to be true. I loved everything about this edition and will definitely go back to it for a quick touch of magic when its needed.
Robbing from the poor,giving back to the rich is a familiar tale. The fact that its happening now and Maria Martinez knows one of the gang doing the robbing is the twist that starts this story. Maria recognizes Luz Chaidez as one of the crew breaking into the house next door to the one she is working as a maid in. Her one time best friend now part of a gang? When the gang uses crow bar on the door of that house she also experiences another kind of recognition when her eyes meet with those of the leader of that gang, "a promise.....of everything".
Robin Hood, gangs, frightened neighborhoods and corrupt cops are just some of the ways this story finds its way, but at the bottom of it all is magic, and a love story that has been told in many ways over the years.
If you already know de Lint then you know how much fun this mix is going to be, if you dont I envy you getting to read this for the first time.
The two Charles have now teamed up several times, in both childrens books and fantasy tales, all are worth looking for, and reading.

[David Edmonds · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, little retelling of Robin Hood that is told in de Lint's plain, straight forward writing, Jack in the Green finds Robin Hood brought to the modern day Southwest barrio. I've still not read that much de Lint, but I do like how he handles magic in his stories: that there really isn't an explanation for how it works, you just accept it how it is. However, I found the socio political context of the story a little heavy handed; given that it's a Robin Hood retelling, we already know it's about how the rich are oppressing the poor (this time seen from the point of view of the recent recession), but to have it made such a large point in the story, so many times, felt too much like de Lint was simply writing this to express his views and was trying to poorly hide it in this novella. I'm not sorry I read it, I'm just not sure this will ever rank up there as a favorite for me.

I want to mention a little on the physical book itself. It's beautiful. Charles Vess' cover illustration is fantastic, and fits the tone of the story quite well, as do his interior illustrations. Subterranean Press did an excellent job with the production of the book. The green, leaf embossed endpapers are gorgeous and the graphic design of the book is really top notch. This book is another of the reasons I think Sub Press is one of the finest small print press runs in the country.

[Chazzbot · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novella "updates" the Robin Hood story, bringing the legendary character to the barrio to face drug lords. It's a well-written and engaging story, though there is not much depth to it. On the other hand, why should there be? deLint incorporates some social commentary and relates the story largely through the perspective of a young Latina who falls for the titular Jack/Robin. There are some fantasy elements incorporated to explain how Jack enters our realm, and some other magic influences an important plot point near the end of the story.

Though this is a Robin Hood tale, deLint doesn't veer too much from the narrator's perspective, which makes the story fresh and, to some extent, keeps the reader wondering whether it's really *that* Robin Hood.

The book runs less than a 100 pages, but incorporates some nice illustrations from Charles Vess (I wished there were more of them). So, a nice way to pass a few hours, and a simple tale, well-told.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This retelling of Robin Hood has some interesting moments but came off very one dimensional. It is interesting to think of what justice, even if it is vigilante, might look like in the barrio where power is corrupt and the wealthy gate themselves off from everyone else. What does law and morality mean in a world where the economy and the law is stacked against the poor and less fortunate?

But too much of this novella comes off flat and obvious. Everything feels like a caricature even if the setting is the American Southwest instead of England. The only scene I found all that compelling was the interaction between the gang and the bottle witch. Even the resolution was too simple. Maria comes back to life, Jack defeats the bad guys, and the live happily ever after. This came off as a sketch of a story rather than a flushed out one. Even short stories pack more punch than this.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This very short work includes dome beautiful illustrations by Charles Vess (not nearly enough of these in my opinion) and is a modern day retelling of the Robin Hood saga. Set in a dessert town amid gang violence, the haves and have-nots live in separate worlds where the brown-skinned people are always in the wrong - at least according to Luz and Maria who have been besties from a young age. Luz has magic in her soul, and ultimately calls on it to bring the merry band of marauders from the green wood to the barrio. An interesting take on the original tale (which I have to admit I have never read, but only know through reference and popular culture) and one that makes me want to go back and read the original story and learn more about the origins of the original story.

[Raymond Just · Rating 2 out of 5]

A clever little volume from a great and prolific master, Charles injects a traditional Robin Hood tale into a poor Mexican barrio. It works for the most part, and the change in scene adds a fresh take. But it tends toward the somewhat preachy at times in comparing the haves to the have nots, and the banks and corporations to the everyday person. I do agree with the sentiment, but it's force-fed to the reader a little too overtly. And, I have to admit, part of what I love about de Lint's writing is the verdant forest and rich imagery that goes along with it, and eschewing that setting for the dusty streets of Mexico doesn't really work as well for me.

[Jessamy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little tale is full of the beautifully crafted writing of one of my favorite authors, Charles de Lint. While this novella is not brand new it is always a pleasure revisiting the magic-filled urban world with a story as old and timeless as storytelling itself. The ancient story of the Green Man melded with the beliefs and values of the peoples of this new country and time just works so well in his hands. For many years now Mr. de Lint has gifted us with characters to love; to watch grow through several books that are not part of a series but a far-reaching family history. I love his work and a few of my sisters feel the same - we all have shelves full of his books!

[Chris Jamison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've just started reading this, but I'm already disappointed - there are only minimal illustrations by Charles Vess. I'm reading the 978-1-59606-641-0 signed, limited edition. A quick scan of the text reveals only 5 less-than-half-page illustrations. Vess is my favorite contemporary illustrator of books, and I was hoping to see more of his work.

//
After finishing the book, I do like it for the story. So I rate it 3 (my general "like" rating). My disappointment over the lack of illustration remains.

[Bruce Nordstrom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was disappointing with this book, though I've been a de Lint fan for several years now.

This is a retelling, in a way, of the classic Robin Hood story. With Robin and his men brought to the modern Southwestern U.S. and involved in fighting the Drug War. There is magic, and mystery, evil and heroes and some very good stuff.

But I am disappointed. This story is too short to develop to it's full depth, and lacks in real character development.

[Pedro Marroquín · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hubo una época en que me leía todo lo que sacaba este autor... hasta que me cansó que siempre sacase el mismo libro. He vuelto a leer algo suyo a ver si había cambiado. Y si, ha cambiado, pero a peor. Esta es lanhistoria de una chica que (mal)vive en una ciudad dominada por los narcos. Pero una amiga suya sabe algo de magia y ha invocado al espíritu de Robin Hood para que robe a los ricos, y se lo de a los pobres. Argumento predecible, incluso el convulso final. C

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sweet novella that merges de Lint's ability to weave classic fantasy tropes into the American southwest almost seamlessly.

This one's a bit more of a political story than some of his work, but as the titular character's an embodiment of Robin Hood, what else would you expect?

Very well done and as always, Vess' illustrations are perfect complements to the text.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really a 2.5. It was a nice little urban fantasy tale that brings Robin Hood into the barrio via a magical pact between two best friends. At less than 100 pages it was a quick read. My low rating is a pretty subjective one and it bugged me little that the social commentary was a bit ham fisted. I guess I was just not that into it.

[George Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason this was a 4 star instead of a 5 is that it was a novella. I wanted more everything by the end. Great story, fun characters, excellent ending... Just wished it was spaced out over 300 pages.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this deft novella, Charles De Lint brings one of the world's most beloved tales into the modern day, transporting Robin Hood from the green wood to the barrio, recasting an epic story of love and friendship, with justice at its center.

[Maggie Secara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly Robin Hood, but maybe better than that. I liked this one a lot.

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and enjoyable read.