The Beginning Place

Ursula K. Le Guin

★★★½☆

Maybe it’s one of those books that I would have liked when I was still in the target age range.

It’s less a beginning place and more of an in-between. The fantasy world beyond the gate and stream is always in twilight. Hugh and Irena are at that awkward stage of early adulthood where they’re sort of independent, but still caught in their parents’ orbits. The whole story feels like people caught in liminal spaces, both literally and figuratively.

The heroes from suburbia are both interesting (and contrasting) characters, but I wanted to know more about Tembreabrezi, both the world and the people on the far side of the gate. It’s kept vague, just enough to throw them into a quest together but not enough to make it clear what they’re supposed to do.

The more I think about it, the more I think that vagueness is intentional: Some portal fantasies (Oz, Wonderland) are mainly about the fantasy world, with the protagonist a stand-in for the reader. Others (Narnia) are about the fantasy world and what it means to the people who go there and come back. This novel strips away as much of the fantasy as possible, leaving only the thematic and fairy-tale logic, because what they bring back to reality is more important than what’s on the other side.