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Maybe I can go home today!
I am currently in the Reaga National airport in Washington DC, having been here since 9:45 for a 6:55 flight. Yeah, I *could* have gone off around DC for a bit more touristing, but honestly I am so paranoid about the whole situation that I feel much better sitting here and reading, checking email*, and possibly watching some TV on my iPod.
I have completed Jonathan Connolly's The Book of Lost Things. It's an adult book about a boy who gets transported into a fantasy world based on fairy tales twisted in on themselves. I say "adult" because it's aimed at that market, and while it *could* be read by kids, I'd give it to an older teen rather than a kid, as the fairy tales tend to be based on the original forms of these tales, with all that implies. No actual sex - and kids would probably zoom right over the references - but it's more violent and scary and is based on metaphors for a tumultuous adolescence come to life in fairy-tale form.
The edition I have contains a short interview with the author and his notes about and retellings of fairy tales in the back, which means you have the disconcerting experience of the book actually ending about a hundred pages earlier than you thought it was going to. Which sorely disappointed me, because I thought it was going to do something really cool with What Happens After, which the genre of being-sent-into-a-fantasy-world never addresses, but no. I think Connolly was also aiming for a bittersweet ending, but didn't quite pull it off.
What I liked: David, the main character, early on begins to think and be sensible about things, and to reason things out. He's still a kid, and fails in some ways, mostly related to his emotions when circumstances and opponents target and prey on the fears at the core of his heart, but he doesn't do really stupid things for most of the book.
It was also interesting that the book opens during the Blitz, with the terror and tumult of WWII echoing David's personal tumult as his mother dies and his father remarries.
What I didn't like about it: that all adult women are evil monsters, seducers, or enchantresses. This isn't necessarily a failing with the book itself, as the adult women are all clearly representatives in David's mind of Rose, his stepmother, and her position as usurper of David's mother, while all the adult men are representative of David's father, and it makes sense for it to be that way, as it's David's personal story. But it's part of the genre as a whole that there's just not enough strong positive women in them.
Anyway. Recommended as long as you don't mind the metaphors banging you on the head.
* Ended up buying a 2-hour block of time from AT&T Wireless for $5.99. It was either that or the free public wifi whose signal was so weak my computer kept dropping it. As far as airport entertainment goes, it's not bad, and about the price and duration of a paperback book.
I have completed Jonathan Connolly's The Book of Lost Things. It's an adult book about a boy who gets transported into a fantasy world based on fairy tales twisted in on themselves. I say "adult" because it's aimed at that market, and while it *could* be read by kids, I'd give it to an older teen rather than a kid, as the fairy tales tend to be based on the original forms of these tales, with all that implies. No actual sex - and kids would probably zoom right over the references - but it's more violent and scary and is based on metaphors for a tumultuous adolescence come to life in fairy-tale form.
The edition I have contains a short interview with the author and his notes about and retellings of fairy tales in the back, which means you have the disconcerting experience of the book actually ending about a hundred pages earlier than you thought it was going to. Which sorely disappointed me, because I thought it was going to do something really cool with What Happens After, which the genre of being-sent-into-a-fantasy-world never addresses, but no. I think Connolly was also aiming for a bittersweet ending, but didn't quite pull it off.
What I liked: David, the main character, early on begins to think and be sensible about things, and to reason things out. He's still a kid, and fails in some ways, mostly related to his emotions when circumstances and opponents target and prey on the fears at the core of his heart, but he doesn't do really stupid things for most of the book.
It was also interesting that the book opens during the Blitz, with the terror and tumult of WWII echoing David's personal tumult as his mother dies and his father remarries.
What I didn't like about it: that all adult women are evil monsters, seducers, or enchantresses. This isn't necessarily a failing with the book itself, as the adult women are all clearly representatives in David's mind of Rose, his stepmother, and her position as usurper of David's mother, while all the adult men are representative of David's father, and it makes sense for it to be that way, as it's David's personal story. But it's part of the genre as a whole that there's just not enough strong positive women in them.
Anyway. Recommended as long as you don't mind the metaphors banging you on the head.
* Ended up buying a 2-hour block of time from AT&T Wireless for $5.99. It was either that or the free public wifi whose signal was so weak my computer kept dropping it. As far as airport entertainment goes, it's not bad, and about the price and duration of a paperback book.
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I'm glad you wrote this up. I'd looked at it in the store a couple of times, and read the reviews - but unless a professional review is by someone I trust to recommend fantasy (like, say, Michael Dirda, or an author I like), I'm leery of fantasy written by mainstream authors for mainstream audiences.
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And "allegory" was the term I was searching for up above when I used "metaphor". XD
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Have a safe flight home!
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One thing that might have swayed me to like the book maybe more than usual is that it included the original fairytales in the back in all of their twisted humanity. Fairytales have come to be thought of as pleasant bedtime stories for wee ones when, in truth, the original versions were so much more dark.
It is refreshing to read your thoughts on this book because so often people will read a book and never think about it a level deeper than the surface. You being one of only 2 other people that I know who have read this book, I wish I could discuss it with you.
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