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Maybe I can go home today!
Apr. 11th, 2008 12:55 pmI 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:
( cut for minor spoiler, although you'll figure it out fairly early on as the book *is* predictable and follows a standard formula in the theme of David starting to grow up )
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:
( cut for minor spoiler, although you'll figure it out fairly early on as the book *is* predictable and follows a standard formula in the theme of David starting to grow up )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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