Ms. Hen reviews A Hidden Place

A Hidden Place

Robert Charles Wilson

Bantam Books

1986

Ms. Hen picked up this book at the Little Free Library in Downtown Boston because she liked the cover. She tried to explain to her hen friend that was with her that good books have good covers, but her friend didn’t believe her. Ms. Hen knows that it’s hard to believe that you can judge a book by its cover, but she has learned this in publishing seminars. If the company thinks the book is worthwhile, they will create an attractive cover. Ms. Hen has told you this before, but she wants to remind you.

Ms. Hen started reading this novel because it’s short and she wanted to finish a book fast before she goes on vacation this week. Even though this novel is not that long, it’s intense reading, and is dense at times. Ms. Hen thinks that the best part of A HIDDEN PLACE might be the writing; it’s well crafted and mellifluous. Some aspects to the book are not superb.

This novel is about a small town on the plains of the United States, Haute Montagne, where Travis, a young man, goes to live with his aunt and uncle after the death of his mother. His uncle gives him a job at the ice plant that he owns. It’s the Depression, and jobs are hard to come by, and Travis has limited choices. A mysterious woman, Anna,  lives upstairs, and Travis is intrigued by her. His uncle warns him not to consider her romantically, and Travis is afraid of him, so he acquiesces.

Travis becomes friendly with a waitress in the town, Nancy, and the two of them go to the movies a few times. She has heard about Anna, but she doesn’t understand what she is doing in the house or the town. Anna has a secret. Travis and Nancy discover that she is not human, and is looking for her other half, Bone, who has forgotten who he is and what he must do. Travis finds Anna attractive, and he realizes why his uncle didn’t want him to become involved with her, because he wanted her all to himself. Anna escapes from the house and Travis and Nancy help her.

Ms. Hen liked this book, but she thought it was strange. It’s a story about a small town during the Depression, and how desperate and conservative the townspeople have to be in order to survive difficult times. But it turns into a science fiction novel, and Ms. Hen doesn’t quite see how that fits into the environment where the story takes place. Ms. Hen likes science fiction and magical realism, but she likes it in a context that she can believe. She doesn't understand why Anna and her other half have separated and have to get back together. She doesn't know why the things in this novel happen the way they happen. She believes that this might be meant to be a fairy tale, but she doesn’t comprehend why it has to take place during the Depression.

Sometimes when Ms. Hen’s mind is on other things, she gets distracted and can’t focus. Her mind right now is on the South of France and Paris and vacation, and that might be the reason why she didn’t enjoy this novel and much as she would normally. This reminds her a little of movies from the 1980s, like ET and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. This novel was published in that era, so those might be influences. If she read this at a different time, she might have liked it more.