Hearing Trumpet Idea of Magic

             This week I am discussing the book we read entitled The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington.  This book was very different to read because of the way that Carrington narrates the book.  Her language seems very dreamlike and the why in which she describes things reminds of me talking to my grandma, which makes sense because the main character Marian is really old.  One of my favorite parts of the book is when Marian arrives at her new home- what the reader would think of as a nursing home.  However it’s much different than the usual nursing homes we would think of today.  That’s where the element of magic and make believe come into play.  The bungalows where the ladies stay are each a different shape. Within its high walls, "the main building was in fact a castle, surrounded by various pavilions with incongruous shapes. Pixielike dwellings shaped like toadstools, Swiss chalets, railway carriages, one or two ordinary bungalows, something shaped like a boot, another like what I took to be an outsize mummy."  Marian’s bungalow specifically is a lighthouse shaped tower.  There was little furniture in the room because most of it was painted onto the wall.  Therefore creating a one-dimensional living space.  This part of the book really shows the imagination of Carrington when creating this scene.  

            My response to this book was that it’s a very different read and at times I had a hard time following what was going on and if it was reality or fairytale.  Another aspect I noticed was that this book is not a chapter book; rather it is formed into one gigantic long story.  This form makes it a little bit harder to read because everything is condensed together instead of splitting it up into sections.  As a reader the magic element helped me to see the book as a fun read, and not a deep dark heavy read.  I think it creates a little bit of a fairytale for the reader because of her use of magic and imagination.