Thalassine

by V. Corinne Renshaw, Margery Gill (Illustrator)

With the help of a beautiful sea creature, a twelve-year-old boy changes his unhappy life by becoming more thoughtful of others.

110 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Capn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Life was full of tricks for Marcel. Just when he thought that something wonderful was about to happen things would turn out in the usual dismal way - until he met Thalassine. She came from the sea, and Marcel was never quite sure who or what she was; but somehow after he had met her things began to improve. He found out that if he were kind to other people they would be kind to him in return. His grandmother certainly changed; even his dour Uncle Armand seemed to be proud of him in the end; and after he had been rescued from the sea by fisherman Pierre with the wooden leg he didn't mind his own stump of a left arm so much. He could paint and he could carve - he could even help with the onion harvest . . . Life was full of promise for Marcel.
This poignant story by V. Corinne Renshaw is set in a fishing village in Brittany where strange myths and old-fashioned prejudices remained; Margery Gill skilfully combines ruggedness and sympathy in her illustrations.

A touching story of a bullied, orphaned 'cursed' boy born without a left hand and reviled by his bitter grandmother and miserable uncle, who comes out of his depression and into a life worth living, all because of the mysterious and benevolent intervention of Thalassine.

This caught my eye initially because the cover is eerily similar to Anra the Storm Child's! (in that case the illustrator is Kennedy, not Gill):

But there are few parallels there, merfolk aside. Marcel is from fictional Sainte-Sablons in Brittany, and has never been outside his village, on his uncle's fishing boat, or anywhere near the circle of standing stones that his grandmother claimed had cursed his mother (who died in childbirth).

Cheerful and benign Father Jourdain, the local Priest, is everything you'd want in a man-of-the-cloth; an ideal spiritual leader and community stalwart. Between his unwavering kindness and the magic of Thalassine, occasionally likened to a local carving of the Virgin Mary, Marcel moves from a place of spiritual death to life.

It's a heavy sort of story for a sensitive child, and the sort of curious old-school story where not only does a 12 year old drink rose wine and coffee (it is France after all), but one of the heroes and positive figures in the story laughs heartily about wielding a club in bar brawls and says he promised his wife not to do it anymore.

Marcel, in spite of his missing hand, comes to realise that he is still, in fact, a useful member of the village and has many redeeming qualities, as well as artistic abilities.

There's one line where Marcel is shivering and he puts 'his hands into his pockets', which I found rather irritating because Marcel just has the one hand and this is an ongoing theme. A sloppy choice of words from Renshaw, but it annoyed me.

I enjoyed the story and its lovely black and white illustrations by Margery Gill, but I think it's rather an odd one best enjoyed by either bibliophiles with an interest in merfolk, or a collector of quirky vintage children's stories.

[Afifah · Rating 5 out of 5]

read to learn english..appreciate the time that i have spent to translate some (many)unknown word. learn a lot about character of the sea and its creatures in english...