Laurie R. King on Jane Langton's

The Diamond in the Window
Noble children, nutty relatives, and magic realism

I must have read Jane Langton's The Diamond in the Window shortly after it was published, in 1962. I was ten years old. It changed my life.
The novel has everything one could possibly want in a tale: noble children,
both present and long lost; a mad uncle and a beleaguered aunt; historical truth and philosophical speculation; an exotic Indian prince and the solid Americana of Concord, Mass. (Old North Bridge; Emerson, Thoreau, and Alcott.) Today, the adventure they are all caught up in would be called magical realism. Langton's deft touch manages to build a story both lighthearted and frightening - darkly, creepily frightening - and the whimsical ink drawings by Eric Blegvad are perfect (make sure you get an illustrated edition.)

If any book made me a writer, it is this one.

The amazing thing to me now is, the book holds up. Most of the fiction we
loved as children goes flat under adult eyes, when clich� and bad writing make one wince, and regret. Not this one. I read it aloud to my own kids 20 years ago, I still read it from time to time, and love it. It's all about the architecture: not only the house itself - "a great wooden Gothic-Byzantine structure, truly in need of painting" - where the key to the mystery is found, but the very real architecture of Eleanor and Edward's inner world. The Diamond in the Window is a child's book, and an adult's book - it is a reader's book. It is also, most emphatically, a writer's book.

Laurie R. King's latest Mary Russell - Sherlock Holmes book is The God of the Hive (Bantam 2010).
www.laurierking.com

"Writers on Reading" is a special ongoing Mystery Scene series available as a first look exclusive to our newsletter subscribers. Next month: Alex Kava.

         

Playing Claus Part One

Playing Claus Part Two