High above the seaside villages of the Lowlanders, dwell the myriad Upland tribes. Regarded as witches by the people below, the Uplanders are distinguished by supernatural gifts that are passed from father to son and mother to daughter within the tribes. The Barre gift is the calling of animals; the Drum tribespeople have the power of the slow wasting; and the Rodds have the gift of the knife. The Caspro gift is that of the unmaking. Young Orrec recalls clearly when his father, the brantor (leader) of Caspromant, first demonstrated his gift for him on a young rat that had gotten trapped in a rain barrel:
"My father stood above the barrel, gazing down steadily into it. He moved his hand, his left hand, and said something or breathed sharply out. The rat squirmed once, shuddered, and floated on the water. My father reached his right hand in and brought it out. It lay utterly limp in his hand, shapeless, like a wet rag, not like a rat. But I saw the tail and the toes with their tiney claws. 'Touch it, Orrec,' he said. I touched it. It was soft, without bones, like a little half-filled sack of meal inside its thin wet skin. 'It is unmade,' my father said, his eyes on mine, and I was afraid of his eyes then."
"My father stood above the barrel, gazing down steadily into it. He moved his hand, his left hand, and said something or breathed sharply out. The rat squirmed once, shuddered, and floated on the water. My father reached his right hand in and brought it out. It lay utterly limp in his hand, shapeless, like a wet rag, not like a rat. But I saw the tail and the toes with their tiney claws. 'Touch it, Orrec,' he said. I touched it. It was soft, without bones, like a little half-filled sack of meal inside its thin wet skin. 'It is unmade,' my father said, his eyes on mine, and I was afraid of his eyes then."
Orrec, it seems, lacks the ability control his gift and is blindfolded for the protection of the tribe. Gry, a young Barre female who inherited the Barre gift of calling the beasts from her mother, refuses to use it to call the animals to the hunt. Gry and Orrec wile away hours together in play and musings about the nature of their existence and their gifts.
Life in the Uplands would seem idyllic were it not for the uneasy truce kept between the largely destitute and warring tribes. Their gifts are most frequently used against one another as they vying for resources in the desolate Upland country. Orrec soon finds his life and his family threatened by Ogge Drum and his tribe, known as usurpers of the land and feared for their gift of the slow wasting.
Life in the Uplands would seem idyllic were it not for the uneasy truce kept between the largely destitute and warring tribes. Their gifts are most frequently used against one another as they vying for resources in the desolate Upland country. Orrec soon finds his life and his family threatened by Ogge Drum and his tribe, known as usurpers of the land and feared for their gift of the slow wasting.
Gifts is timeless and universal in its questioning: What are our gifts and how do we use them or not use them? The novel is as rich and intimate portrayal of the human condition with its attendant joys and sorrows as one would expect from Ursula K. Le Guin. At 74, Le Guin is the author of more than sixty books and is most famous for the books in her Earthsea Cycle, which have sold millions of copies and have been translated into sixteen languages. Gifts is her first YA novel in fourteen years.
It is towards the novel's end that Gry suggests to Orrec that the gifts were not always used destructively. Generations of fear amongst warring tribes have conditioned the use of the gifts negatively, but there are two sides to every coin. Perhaps the other side of the gift of the unmaking is the power of creation, the ability to blind suggesting the ability to give sight.
Such contemporary and universal themes combined with masterful storytelling make Gifts a rich and compelling novel not just for young adult readers, but for readers of all ages.
It is towards the novel's end that Gry suggests to Orrec that the gifts were not always used destructively. Generations of fear amongst warring tribes have conditioned the use of the gifts negatively, but there are two sides to every coin. Perhaps the other side of the gift of the unmaking is the power of creation, the ability to blind suggesting the ability to give sight.
Such contemporary and universal themes combined with masterful storytelling make Gifts a rich and compelling novel not just for young adult readers, but for readers of all ages.
Note: On December 13, 2004, The Earthsea miniseries, based upon Ursula K. Le Guin's epic fantasy cycle, will air on The Sci Fi Channel. Don't miss it!
