Lanny

Lanny, a short novel by Max Porter, is a book that I read in one sitting. It is divided into three distinct sections. The first half of the book is devoted to providing information about the small village and its occupants, sixty miles from London, where Lanny's family now live. Lanny is a young sensitive, certainly different, boy who lives with his mother, Jolie, an actress and aspiring writer, and his father, Robert, who commutes to London on the train to work. The family, newly settled in the village, is not readily accepted by the other villagers but Lanny becomes friends with the local artist, Pete, who in many ways is also an outcast as far as the villagers are concerned. The village dates back hundreds of years and has a presence, Dead Papa Toothwork, whose spirit observes and inhabits the village from time to time. Dead Papa Toothwork reawakens as the the story begins. The second section of the novel is an account of the villagers' reactions to the disappearance of Lanny, written as a stream of consciousness, while the third section is concerned with locating the child, alive or dead.

The writing, sometimes dark, looks at the prejudices of people who are unable to accept that some people may be different, but still human. It also involves the mystical world of past legends still influencing the present.