The House on the Brink

First published in 1971, "The House on the Brink" by John Gordon is a classic.  I first read it about 25 years ago on one of my book trips to Vancouver, B.C.  My mother read it as well and would often comment on how this odd book haunted her...a terrified lady and a seemingly malevolent log moving up the beach toward her house.   I also felt haunted by this book...and in an odd way makes me feel closer to my mother who died six years ago. This time I picked up the richness of the physical and emotional landscape, electrifying poetic word pictures, along with an equally compelling narrative...buzzing with energizing creativity.   

Let me give you a sense of the writing.  This passage is about a boy daring himself into stealing a rowboat...

   Act now.
   He looked quickly up and down the wharf.  Still
alone.  He went to the edge.  The cruiser had its fenders
out and was held even farther from the wharf by a wide
baulk in the water.  A couple of yards.  But there were
handgrips along the canopy over the cockpit and a
ledge for his feet.  He leaped, reaching for the grips.  His
feet hit the deck.
   A boat is a floating drum.  The thud of his feet
echoed within it, and at that instant he thought of
people on board.  He clung, and fear stripped him as
clean as a skeleton.  It happened once in every real dare.

(page 13, "The House on the Brink")

Read his words aloud.  His writing truly comes alive.  Equally effective creative writing is John Gordon's "The Giant in the Snow" (1969).