Comments on: “Ingo” 2005 Young Adult novel by Helen Dunmore http://chock.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/%e2%80%9cingo%e2%80%9d-2005-young-adult-novel-by-helen-dunmore/ The screenplay is stronger than the swordplay Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:40:34 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: colin http://chock.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/%e2%80%9cingo%e2%80%9d-2005-young-adult-novel-by-helen-dunmore/#comment-2 colin Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:19:19 +0000 http://chock.wordpress.com/2006/11/28/%e2%80%9cingo%e2%80%9d-2005-young-adult-novel-by-helen-dunmore/#comment-2 Well, the end is a slight let-down, but I still highly recommend the book and will be reading the two sequels. the only criticism I can think of (and it's a slight one): If it's your nature as a writer to be poetic (dunmore is a poet) as well as observant (poets are generally observant), the risk of writing from the viewpoint of a child (as dunmore does in "Ingo") is that it subverts verisimilitude. what I mean is that dunmore (who is also able to get into the mind of a child) creates narration in one paragraph that sounds like the authentic voice of a young girl. but in the next paragraph the child might come up with an observation like "the world of smells for a dog is like being in library with a million book." only a genius child would be able to come up with observations like that time after time. and I would bet that not even shakespeare (at the same age) could have done it w the regularity that the narrator in "Ingo" does. Well, the end is a slight let-down, but I still highly recommend the book and will be reading the two sequels.

the only criticism I can think of (and it’s a slight one):

If it’s your nature as a writer to be poetic (dunmore is a poet) as well as observant (poets are generally observant), the risk of writing from the viewpoint of a child (as dunmore does in “Ingo”) is that it subverts verisimilitude.

what I mean is that dunmore (who is also able to get into the mind of a child) creates narration in one paragraph that sounds like the authentic voice of a young girl. but in the next paragraph the child might come up with an observation like “the world of smells for a dog is like being in library with a million book.”

only a genius child would be able to come up with observations like that time after time. and I would bet that not even shakespeare (at the same age) could have done it w the regularity that the narrator in “Ingo” does.

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