Half a Creature from the Sea: A Life in Stories by David Almond (review)

Alternating between snippets of biographical detail and stories embellished with Almond’s signature brand of magic realism, this volume demonstrates how ordinary life circumstances can become the seeds of well-made stories. Almond begins by giving a bit of his origin story as a writer: he was inspired by the humble settings of his small town and the fact that his uncle was a printer and an amateur poet. He then goes on to recount how he parlayed that setting, his experiences with Catholic teaching, and his memory of a particular tramp into a story that Almond fans will be familiar with, “Slog’s Dad.” Most of the rest of the stories have also been published in other forms and volumes, but the newly written prefaces showcase their connections to real life events and local folklore, making this a useful volume for creative writing assignments, particularly for students who think that their everyday experiences have nothing special to offer. Stories told feature poltergeists, visitations by real sports gods and imagined otherworldly folk, nostalgic tales told by dying elders, shame and triumph in the cycles of bullying among boys in a small village. While the fictional stories are equally invested in the marriage between the mystical and the earthy, Almond also brings a luminous quality to the biographical bits that will encourage readers to rethink the wonder of their own lives and to see what’s just outside their windows with new eyes.