Product Description

From a master storyteller comes a taut psychological thriller about a boy's harrowing dream world. "Trokeville offers a window into the jumble of emotions in an intellectual adolescent's tumultuous mind."--School Library Journal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3683767 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-25
• Released on: 1997-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 117 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Nick Hartley is having a hard time. He is the class bully's target of abuse; he has a crush on the older sister of a friend, a girl he compares to the elusive beggar maid in a famous pre-Raphaelite painting; and he's smart enough to know that the world around him isn't always what it seems. Nick's perceptions change when he comes across a ne'er-do-well magician who tells him, "Winners get what they want and losers get what they deserve." The magician sizes Nick up and sells him a "juzzle," a gyroscope plus jigsaw puzzle that, when used in tandem, bring Nick into a surreal world called The Trokeville Way. There, everything is more than a bit off-kilter, beginning with the language: a bridge is a "brudge"; a forest is a "little would." More urgently, the people who loom largest to Nick-his parents, the bully, the older girl-have been blown off course, too. While they seem sturdy enough in the ordinary world, in Trokeville they wander in an almost dreamlike state, easily trapped by obstacles (i.e., not sure how to maintain their chosen direction in life). A new book by Hoban (The Mouse and His Child; The Marzipan Pig) will be welcomed by many, but the philosophical asides and existential regrets may be frustrating for young readers, who will find them digressive and incomprehensible in some cases. An overly neat ending and a general lack of plot and character development also prove disappointing. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-Puberty-bound Nick Hartley is preoccupied with getting beat up again by a foul-smelling bully. When Nick's head is knocked against the wall in their latest bout, the line between reality and fantasy is temporarily erased. In his "enhanced" state, which is full of brighter colors and sharper details, the boy buys a watercolor that has been cut up into a jigsaw puzzle from a down-and-out ex-illusionist. Moe Nagic, who calls the work of art The Trokeville Way, tells Nick a sad tale of a lost love, a story inextricably linked to the painting. Hoban mixes poetry, art, and music in Nick's dreamy descent into the picture that will ostensibly lead him to his own private Trokeville. Weird wordplay adds to Nick's disorientation as he deals with the brudge ("bridge with a grudge"), juzzle, mise, troke ("part trick, part stroke"), etc. To this conundrum Hoban adds an unsettling twist: the other players remember their role in Nick's dreams. Trokeville offers a window into the jumble of emotions in an intellectual adolescent's tumultuous mind, one that appreciates ineffable beauty and fears the humiliation of defeat. This is a literary fantasy of mettle and romance containing all the chivalric elements of justice, strength, deference to beauty, and self-actualization. A challenging and offbeat treat for those students willing to make the effort to follow Nick's tortuous trip, it requires a leap of faith and a strong curiosity, as well as an appreciation for the prescient, nagging advice from one's inner voices.
John Sigwald, Unger Memorial Library, Plainview, TX
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 5^-8. It begins with a bump on the head, administered by the class bully. Then 13-year-old Nick, owner of the bump, encounters a down-and-out magician and agrees to buy a peculiar jigsaw puzzle that may possess magical properties. Soon Nick is wandering about in the alternate reality opened to him by the puzzle: there is a bridge and a dark wood and a damsel in distress and the class bully and a winding path that might lead to a place called Trokeville, where there may be a way out of the puzzle. We are coming-of-age here if you hadn't noticed, but this journey of self-discovery is a mite more perilous than most: the archetypes are as big as boulders, and they litter Nick's path like papier-machemonsters in a carnival fun house. Unfortunately, they are about that real, too. This would-be psychological thriller about accepting yourself and remaining open to the magic of the universe is so transparently symbolic, so cluttered with meaning, that the inherent drama of the story largely dissipates into airy nothingness. Kids who know the movie Princess Bride, however, may respond favorably to the similiar dish being served here. Bill Ott

Customer Reviews

Trokeville is the bridge to Fremder's terrifying 'otherness'
With no US company willing to publish an adult book by Hoban, it has become increasingly difficult to follow the path of his creative wanderings. With each book he seems to proceed further, but as to the destination of that motion, who can say? After Hoban's `The Medusa Frequency' it seems we have a long space of blackness before `Fremder' turns up, only published in the UK. But before `Fremder', he apparently wrote the children's book 'Trokeville' which along with Robert O'Brien's Silver Crown is probably one of the most disturbing books I have read in the genre. Of course, Hoban admits that children need to be challenged, and he really doesn't pull any punches with Trokeville. In a sense, this harkens back to `Mouse and his Child' which he did not write for children, but became marketed as a children's book. To me at least, `Trokeville' also reads like a book Hoban simply found in his head, and which subsequently was marketed for kids. People who do not understand Hoban (such as the review provided by Amazon that compares `Trokeville' to `The Princess Bride') will mistake `Trokeville' as simply a very dingy fantasy with a lot of humor that doesn't work, but a reading of anything Hoban has written since (and including) Riddley Walker will give firm evidence that this is not the case. Hoban is once again writing about consciousness and the consciousness that lies outside of the realms of the limited consensus of reality. He is writing about fear, and the whole duality of beauty emerging out of fear that he described so wonderfully in the `Medusa Frequency'. I do not know if this is really a very good book for kids, yet here is this danger of underestimating children (or teens). I have given the book a four star rating because that is where it stands with me, the feeling being one of an intermediate step between his serious books. If you are a Hoban fan this is definitley worth a read, especially at the cheap domestic price. For those who don't know anything about Hoban, find `Mouse and his Child' if you can (for young readers--though I like it too) or any of his adult books which I prefer to `Trokeville'.

Good for ages 10-18
Wondeful.The book the trokeville way is funny suspenseful and realistic when he is outside in the real world. If you had noticed I called this paragraph good for ages 10-18. This is because they use mature words and swear. But other than that the trokeville way is a extrordinary book.

There's Moe Nagic left
When a young boy takes a bang to his head after getting into a fight, he meets a tramp, sitting on the road. The tramp, (Moe Nagic), sells a jigsaw puzzle to the boy. Moe explains how the puzzle can come alive, and how you can visit the land of Troke. Now it is up to Stevie, to visit the old brudge, and follow the path, that leads to Trokeville.