Radiant Days

Merle, a talented artist living in 1970s America, and Arthur Rimbaud, the renowned late-nineteenth-century French poet, tumble into each other's worlds in this fantasy novel from the award-winning author of ILLYRIA. Cassandra Campbell holds her own as the sole narrator, but a pair of narrators might have been a better casting choice as the story is told in the alternating voices of the two prodigious young artists. Campbell adds an air of sophistication to Merle's slow twang as the character herself transforms from a na•ve, impoverished girl into a worldly young woman. However, Campbell's French accent for the young Rimbaud doesn't sound as natural. The author's note at the end provides useful historical information, but the bibliography doesn't add much. M.D. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Starred review from February 20, 2012
Hand (Illyria) returns with a surreal tale of art’s ability to transcend time. In 1978, Merle Tappitt, a talented painter and graffiti artist, is kicked out of art school (where she had been having an affair with a teacher). Merle takes to the streets of Washington, D.C., and runs into a legendary, now homeless guitarist, Ted Kampfert, who points her toward a lockhouse by a canal where she can spend the night. Meanwhile, in 1870, 16-year-old poet Arthur Rimbaud sets out for Paris, also bedding down in a lockhouse. The next morning, Merle and Arthur awake together in 1978. Merle and Arthur, both gay, form a mystical bond, time-slipping between their worlds, each influencing the other to produce great art. Hand’s descriptions of art and poetry as they are being made are breathtaking—“In front of me was a whorl of black and red, emerald vines and orange flame, a shifting wheel of shadowy forms like those cave paintings drawn in charcoal”—and her troubled, beautifully drawn characters make the heart ache. Ages 14–up. Agent: Martha Millard, Martha Millard Literary Agency.