Honeyed Words: The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint

The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint · 5 March 2007

The Onion Girl is one of over a dozen books by Charles de Lint about the fantastical city of Newford and my first introduction to the series. Released in 2001, it's by no means the first in the Newford collection; however, being unfamiliar with the city and its inhabitants did not hinder the reading experience at all.

It takes talent to refer to characters so that a familiar reader will be reminded of their past stories, their loves, and the trials they've gone through, without making the newcomer feel that they're out of place. De Lint is able to perform this by painting his characters in broad strokes, much like the careful work of the main character and artist Jilly Coppercorn, before her accident. The depth to the relationships between Jilly and her friends is evident by the vigil they hold at the hospital after she is run over by a car. The history of the characters relationships' to the veteran Newford reader is also obvious as de Lint tantalizingly hints at old stories, wrapping their old undercurrents into this current one.

The story starts with tragedy as Jilly Coppercorn, the center of a close knit group of friends, is hit by a car and falls into a coma. During the coma, Jilly discovers how to travel to the Dreamlands, a magical alternate world she has heard of and longed for but never been to. When she wakes from the coma to discover her broken and paralyzed body, the Dreamlands seem like a refuge from the harsh reality of her infirmary. De Lint takes us outside everyday experiences to challenge the boundaries that sometimes keep us from seeing what is right in front of our face. For Jilly, escaping to Dreamland gives her respite from her broken body. It returns her to health and to the freedom to pursue her love, painting. It also puts her face to face with the reality that she has deeper hurts to heal that those of her body. Joseph Crazy Dog (Joe to his friends) has already attempted to enlist help to make Jilly whole again, and has been told that the body can't heal until she has healed the hurt deep within by herself. For Jilly, the task is monumental. A survivor of abuse, she thought she had dealt with her trauma when she was rescued from the streets and cleaned up her life. Now, finally forced to acknowledge she's just boxed some things away, Jilly has no idea how to go about fixing what she thought was long mended. Fans of the series probably knew a bit about Jilly's past before reading The Onion Girl, but De Lint takes care to impart the relevant information to those unfamiliar with her story.

After being charged with healing herself, Jilly escapes back into the Dreamlands and the reader is introduced to a new character, Raylene. Life isn't easy for Raylene, that's made clear from her opening chapter when her best friend Pinky has to scare off some would be rapists by pigsticking one with a knife. Raylene watches in awe and admiration. After the incident Pinky shows Raylene a few basic knife moves and gives her a shiny red-handled blade of her own, letting Raylene know that "You don’t want to be dependin’ on nobody but yourself.” Raylene's keen interest in the knife is validated as she goes home to her waiting older brother, the one who has been raping her since before puberty. The night and the knife become a turning point for Raylene. She fights back, and learns to like the power it gives her.

De Lint's mastery of language shines in these scenes with Raylene. He captures the cadence and dialect of a hick town and a girl who is self admittedly trying talk as hickish as possible, ever since her sister abandoned her. The same sister was the only one who attempted to make their broken family better than it was, encouraged them to talk correctly, and shepherded her little sister Raylene. Raylene's life became a lot harder when her sister left and so she rebels against everything her sister held dear. It doesn't take the reader long to put two and two together and realize that Jilly is the older sister who left Raylene in such dire circumstances and that the guilt of this abandonment is the hurt that Jilly must heal. The rest of the book follows two simultaneous threads; the unfolding of Raylene's life and Jilly's battle with recovery and her exploration of the Dreamlands.

Jilly is torn. Once a vibrant and sprite-like character, bold in her painting and her friendships, she's now confined to her bed. Perhaps as compensation and motivation, she's also been given the gift of access to what she has always desired, the Dreamlands. She knows that she must work on solving her problems back in The World As It Is where her body, which she calls The Broken Girl, lies but she can't quite gather the strength to face all her battles when her heart's desire is so easily accessible. And Jilly harbors a deeper fear, that once she starts examining her life and her old hurts, she'll be revealed as an Onion Girl, just layers and layers of protective coating with nothing substantial at the core. As the book progresses, De Lint provides many opportunties for Jilly to prove to herself that she is not an Onion Girl, but a rich and caring person dedicated to nurturing life. The story illustrates turning points where Jilly is given the choice to accept that she is a worthwhile person. She's pulled herself out of a deep and spiraling childhood already, but she can't be truly healed until she forgives herself.

This is the second book by Charles de Lint that I've read. The first, Yarrow, was one of his early works, and the progression of his craft between the two is obvious. The Onion Girl is a smoother, more refined read. It seduces the reader and enthralls them into traveling dark paths in the story without their conscious consent. Charles de Lint tackles the serious subject of child abuse and its effect on the adult psyche without coming across as a crusader and putting off his possible champions. He provides an honest, open look at the legacy of abuse, even for those who escape it.

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